Ottawa Senators take revenge on New York Islanders 5-2 -NHL Update
Facing an embarrassing 5-3 loss against Boston Bruins a day earlier, Ottawa Senators took their frustration out on the struggling New York Islanders club, 5-2, Sunday night, February 26, 2012, at the sold-out Scotiabank Place in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Robin Lehner was in the net for Ottawa as the Senators tried something else as Alex Auld failed to keep Boston out in their previous matchup. Lehner was outshot compared to his counterpart in the New York net, Evgeni Nabokov, 30-23, but fell short on only
two.
It was Lehner’s just second start this 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season, but he was feeling confident on taking up a bigger role.
"I felt pretty comfortable and I felt like I saw the puck well," Lehner said.
New York Islanders’ top rookie, John Tavares, scored his 25th goal of the season to kick off the scoring 49 seconds into the opening period.
Ottawa added two straight in the second while taking advantage of both power play opportunities awarded to them by David Ullstrom and P.A. Parenteau went out with minor penalties.
Milan Michalek and Jason Spezza were the two to score, both getting their 28th of the year.
"It was a big win all around," Spezza said. "It was a hard fought game and Robin did a good job of keeping us in that first period. It wasn't the best first 10 minutes we've had and he kept it 1-0 and gave us a chance to hang around in the game."
Jim O'Brien added the third straight for Ottawa while P.A. Parenteau attempted at breaking the momentum but Chris Neil and Kyle Turris added two more to secure the match for the Senators.
New York is facing tough times being ranked as one of the lowest in the Eastern Conference, but they are determined to use the remaining time to bounce back.
"We've got to take a little more pride in our game and get back to our foundation, where it was at the start of the year,” said Islanders coach, Jack Capuano.
Ottawa has the next against the Bruins, the second in three matchups while Islanders are to play against Washington Capitals on Tuesday.
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