The province of Alberta has certainly been kind to the Ottawa Senators.
The Sens took advantage of a sloppy Edmonton Oilers team and walked away with an easy 5-2 win that pulls Ottawa back above .500 and within a single point of the division leading Buffalo Sabres.
For the Oilers, this was their first game back at home after an extended road trip and it showed. They were sloppy from the drop of the puck and handed Ottawa a steady dose of odd man rushes. Greening opened the scoring and Daugavins sniped just nine seconds later to give Ottawa a 2-0 lead, both goals coming off the rush. Ottawa never looked back.
Gotta give credit to Craig Anderson though.
He wasn't tested a whole lot but made some big saves in the opening five minutes and kept the game scoreless. He doesn't make those early stops and this could have been a very different hockey game. Same can not be said for Nikolai Khabibulin who was yanked after giving up three in the opening frame.
Jason Spezza picked up a couple of assists to hit 19 points on the season. He won a draw clean, late in the first period to set up Michalek for his 12th of the season, just one shy of the league lead.
Bobby Butler got the ball rolling with a couple in Calgary on Tuesday but you have to love the play of each member of the team's fourth line. They were strong again in this one and MacLean has really shown confidence in those three. Konopka and Winchester both scored in this one and Butler had an assist.
It was a pretty strange goal from Jesse Winchester to break a personal 42 game scoring drought. After missing an empty net on Tuesday, Winchester found himself in alone on a breakaway but thought the play had been blown dead. He slowed up, took a quick look back only to realize the play was still live. To his credit, he regained focus and made a great shot over the glove of Devan Dubnyk.
For the third straight outing, Ottawa put together a near perfect road game.
They have been breaking out of their own end cleanly, looking after their own end, burying their chances and getting big saves from Craig Anderson. The Sens are playing with a ton of confidence right now and are being rewarded for their hardwork over this most recent stretch.
Ottawa now has a couple days off before closing out their West Coast road trip against the Stanley Cup Finalists Vancouver Canucks on Sunday night.
