It is March 17. There are just ten games left in the regular season and the Ottawa Senators have taken over the top spot in the Northeast Division.
Filip Kuba played the role of overtime hero and the Senators overcame a dreadful night on the power play as they picked up a crucial victory on home ice. With the 2-1 overtime win over the Canadiens, the Sens leap frog the Bruins and move into second place in the Eastern Conference.
After a Tomas Plekanec shorthanded goal gave the Habs a 1-0 lead, the Senators were sent to the man advantage time after time and failed to beat Carey Price. Four shots caught iron behind the Canadiens netminder and Montreal defenders blocked shot after shot.
The end result was an ugly 0/9 night on the power play.
It just seemed like a night where the Sens weren't going to get a break. That was until a great hustle play by Zack Smith set up the game tying goal by Colin Greening with under 14 minutes to play. Ottawa had a couple of chances to win this one in regulation but Carey Price stood tall in the Montreal net. If not for Price, this is a game the Sens would have won handily.
Considering the outcome in the shootout on Wednesday night, you knew that Ottawa would go for it in the overtime and that is exactly what they did.
Erik Karlsson lugged the puck out of the Ottawa zone and hit a streaking Daniel Alfredsson on the right side. Alfie made a quick move on the Habs defender and hit a wide open Kuba on the left point. Kuba had all day to pick his spot and made no mistake beating Price on the blocker side much to the delight of about 60% of the fans in attendance.
The win gives the Senators control of the division for the first time this season and sends a strong message to the rest of the league. The Bruins, who now have two games in hand, will have a chance to regain top spot when they host the Flyers tomorrow night.
And depending on the result of that game, the Sens can either regain or stretch their Northeast lead with a win over the Leafs on St. Patrick's Day Saturday.
- I mentioned this in the comment section but wanted to pass along some really exciting news related to the site. For the first time, SensChirp will be getting media access and press pass for the April 5th game against the Bruins. Obviously a really exciting opportunity for me personally but it's something that would not have been possible with ongoing support from the readers of this site. Thanks goes out to each and every one of you.
- Bryan Murray spoke with Elliote Friedman during tonight's broadcast and provided a handful of interesting tid bits. The first is that he expects Anderson to return to the net sometime next week. Also on the goaltending front, he mentioned that one of Lehner or Bishop will be sticking with the club even when Anderson does return. Murray also indicated that while no formal negotiations have been held related to Erik Karlsson, he does expect the process to begin in the near future.
