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Resurgent Senators to take on Panthers

Dec 8, 2008 - 3:27 PM Florida (11-12-3) at Ottawa (10-10-4), 7:30 pm EST

OTTAWA (Ticker) -- Jason Spezza and the Ottawa Senators look for their third consecutive victory when they host the Florida Panthers on Monday.

Spezza recorded his second career hat trick Saturday as the Senators cooled off the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 3-2 victory. Alex Auld stopped 17 shots and Dany Heatley notched a pair of assists for the Senators, who have won four of their last five contests.

"It was nice to see Spezza have a good game like that," captain Daniel Alfredsson said. "I think overall today, we did a good job with the puck. We didn't turn it over much and we forced them to play in their own end quite a bit. The only time they had some possession was on the power play, and our penalty-killers did a good job. And (Auld) played well, too."

Spezza, who scored all three goals in the second period, hopes the win over the reigning Eastern Conference champion Penguins can be a springboard for the rest of the season.

"They're one of the best teams in the East, and they're a team that we know if you want to win, you're probably going to have to go through, so we just have to make up points in the standings," Spezza said. "We've kind of put ourselves in a bit of a spot, and now we're slowly getting ourselves out of it."

The Panthers will try to bounce back from a 4-0 setback to the Boston Bruins. The loss snapped Florida's three-game winning streak.

Craig Anderson has started the last five games for the Panthers, but usual starter Tomas Vokoun likely will be back in the crease.