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Vermette scores twice as Senators top Hurricanes

Jan 18, 2008 - 5:11 AM OTTAWA (Ticker) -- The Ottawa Senators breezed past the Carolina Hurricanes but suffered another major blow in the process.

Antoine Vermette scored two goals and Mike Fisher, Randy Robitaille and Jason Spezza also tallied as the Senators trounced the Hurricanes, 5-1, on Thursday.

While the scoreboard was kind to Ottawa, the injury bug was not as captain Daniel Alfredsson left the game in the first period with a hip flexor and did not return.

With the victory, Ottawa snapped a modest two-game losing streak. Carolina lost its fourth in a row and fell to 2-7-1 in its last 10 games.

"It's always good to win after a couple of losses, and especially after losing Alfredsson," Senators goaltender Martin Gerber said. "You can't replace guys like that."

Vermette opened the scoring with a power-play goal 12:01 into the first period.

Defenseman Joe Corvo fired a shot that goaltender Cam Ward stopped, but the puck deflected off Carolina blue-liner Glen Wesley's skate. Vermette corralled it and deposited it into the net for his ninth goal of the season.

"It's always nice to be able to chip in," Vermette said. "I feel like I played good overall."

The Senators scored three goals 2:23 apart in the second period to break open the game.

Fisher doubled Ottawa's lead with just under nine minutes remaining in the session.

"(Chris) Neil made a nice play on the boards," Fisher said. "I just one-timed it low to the blocker side. There was a bit of traffic in front, so maybe (Ward) didn't get a good look at it."

Vermette pushed the advantage to three just 63 seconds later with his second goal of the game.

Patrick Eaves fed Vermette with a long pass, and the third-liner deked Ward to the ice before depositing the puck past the prone netminder for his 10th tally.

"Eaves, in his second game back, set me up with some great plays," Vermette said. "I was on a couple of 2-on-1s with (Chris) Kelly, who set me up with those chances. It could have been a big night."

Robitaille staked Ottawa to a 4-0 lead before Ray Whitney scored 1:44 into the third period to end Gerber's shutout bid.

"It's not easy to play when your confidence is shaken," Hurricanes captain Rod Brind'Amour said. "We're not making plays like we did at the start of the year. We've got to play better than that."

Gerber made 36 saves against his former team, while Ward turned aside 27 shots.

"When they got down a few goals, they played a high-risk style of game and threw everything up front," Gerber said. "We did a good job battling them to the outside."

Prior to the game, Carolina received a boost to its lineup as Matt Cullen, Scott Walker and defenseman Bret Hedican were activated from injured reserve.

"Anytime you get healthy is a positive," Carolina coach Peter Laviolette said. "Now we have to get back to our style of play. Obviously, what we're doing now is not enough."