Zack Smith fuels Ottawa Senators bounce back against Carolina Hurricanes 4-3 -NHL Update
Jason Spezza finally broke his 11-game scoreless streak while Zack Smith made the game-winner to fuel the Ottawa Senators bounce back after two straight losses, against the Carolina Hurricanes, 4-3, on Sunday night, November 27, 2011, at the sold-out Scotiabank
Place in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Ottawa was on a three game winning streak when they had it snapped by the Vancouver Canucks in overtime, followed by another disappointing, 6-3, loss against the Pittsburgh Penguins, but finally countered back against Carolina.
"It's been a while since I've scored; they usually come in bunches for me," Spezza said. "It's nice to get my 200th out of the way, and it's obviously a big accomplishment and something to be proud of. Hopefully there's more to come."
Jason Spezza scored his seventh of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season only 55 seconds in to send the crowd roaring with joy, but it was washed away with Patrick Dwyer firing back for Carolina to level the contest with less than five
minutes remaining in the opening period.
Spezza answered back two minutes later for the tie-breaker during their first power play opportunity with Carolina rookie, Brandon Sutter, out with a minor penalty for slashing.
"Other than that first minute in the first period, I thought we took it to them and overall played a pretty sound game," said Carolina goalie, Cam Ward. "It's frustrating when wins aren't coming easy and you feel like you played a good game and didn't get
rewarded for it."
David Rundblad extended the Ottawa lead with 14 seconds left to play in the second period for his first of the season while Eric Staal brought Carolina back in the game with another goal at the 6:46 mark of the third.
Zack Smith 12:35 goal came handy for the Senators as Alexei Ponikarovsky capitalised on their second power play opportunity of the third period and came within reach of one with less than four minutes remaining, but failed to force an overtime extension.
Ottawa has the next three on the road, starting off with the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday while Carolina hosts the Florida Panthers the same day.
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