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Elias, Devils top struggling Senators

Dec 20, 2008 - 8:26 AM NEWARK, New Jersey (Ticker) -- Patrik Elias netted two goals and set up two others and Zach Parise had four assists as the New Jersey Devils defeated the Ottawa Senators, 5-1, on Friday.

Brian Gionta, Travis Zajac and defenseman John Oduya also scored and Scott Clemmensen made 24 saves for the Devils, who are 11-2-1 over their last 14 games.

Blue-liner Paul Martin added three assists for New Jersey, which opened a four-game homestand. The Devils also will host the Philadelphia Flyers, Boston Bruins and Pittsburgh Penguins over the next eight days.

"We're playing well. We're scoring a lot goals right now, the lines have been playing really well together," Parise said. "The power play was good tonight, just a good effort from everybody."

"Great team win tonight," Zajac said. "We had some good things tonight. On the power play, we buried our chances and that helped us out."

Jarkko Ruutu recorded a shorthanded goal and Alex Auld turned aside 21 shots for the Senators, who have lost five of their last six contests.

"Coming out in the third, we felt positive (about) our chances," Auld said. "They were able to get, obviously, two more goals there and were able to finish us off."

New Jersey opened the scoring 40 seconds into the game when Gionta netted his ninth goal of the season. Elias delivered a pass to the right point to Martin, who launched a slap shot that Gionta deflected past Auld.

"It's nice to get out to that early (lead)," Gionta said. "It puts the other team back on their heals and gives us some momentum early on."

"It was big," Elias said. "We're playing well as a team right now. We have a lot of big games the whole month of December, so we just have to keep it going."

Oduya doubled the Devils' advantage with 5:32 left in the first period with a power-play goal. Elias picked up an assist on the play, tying John McLean for the franchise record with 169 multi-point contests.

"I think, first and foremost, we want Johnny to be a really responsible defenseman," Devils coach Brent Sutter said. "When the offense arises, if it's there for him, fine."

Ruutu halved the deficit at 8:37 of the middle session with his first goal in 24 games. On a shorthanded 2-on-1 rush, Chris Kelly made a cross-ice pass that Ruutu converted with a one-timer.

"We felt like it was our game the way we kind of controlled the first period," Clemmensen said. "For the most part, we played our game. I don't think there was any panic on the bench or anything."

New Jersey regained the two-goal edge on Elias' power-play goal with 54 ticks remaining in the second.

Elias provided the final margin with another goal on the man advantage, netting his 15th goal of the season by redirecting Parise's attempt with 5:21 left in the final session.

"We knew we didn't play well in the second period," Elias said. "As a team, we were maybe too comfortable maybe in the second period. Obviously, I got a big goal on the power play before the end of the period and in the third, we played well."