Spezza’s four points leads Sens past Penguins
Posted December 16, 2011 10:33 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA — Jason Spezza had two goals and two assists Friday while Daniel Alfredsson and Jared Cowen had a goal and two assists each in the Ottawa Senators’ 6-4 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Colin Greening and Zenon Konopka had the other goals for Ottawa (15-14-4), while defenceman Erik Karlsson chipped in with three assists.
Steve Sullivan and Chris Kunitz both scored for the Penguins (17-11-4) and added two assists. Matt Niskanen and Evgeni Malkin had the other Pittsburgh goals while Chris Kunitz had two assists.
Alex Auld made his first start in four games and made 32 saves to earn his first win of the season.
Brent Johnson started in goal for the Penguins but was replaced by Marc-Andre Fleury to start the third period after allowing five goals on 19 shots. Fleury turned aside four of the five shots he faced.
Spezza and Kunitz traded third period goals.
After a scoreless first period, the two goaltenders were lit up with a total of eight goals in the second, including five Senators goals scored on Johnson.
With eight goals in 20 minutes it’s almost impossible for the goals to not come in bunches. The first three goals came in the opening 2:04 with Ottawa grabbing a 2-1 lead.
Greening gave the Senators the lead 25 seconds into the period and after Sullivan tied the game 71 seconds later, Spezza scored from the slot at 2:04.
The Senators went up 3-1 as Alfredsson scored at 6:45 then more than five minutes passed before the fireworks started again.
The Penguins scored two power-play goals a little more than a minute apart.
Niskanen scored at 11:07 and Malkin at 12:14 before Cowen re-established the Senators’ lead at the 13:20 mark.
After Pascal Dupuis took a high sticking penalty at 19:50, Konopka put the Senators up 5-3 at 19:54 to close out a wild period of hockey, and the night for Johnson.
.Notes: Erik Karlsson collected his 100th career point with his third assist Friday…Defencemen Sergei Gonchar and Filip Kuba have missed the Senators’ last four and nine games respectively with upper-body injuries while Milan Michalek missed his second straight game with a concussion…The Penguins have a long list of injured players but the most noticeable are Sidney Crosby (4th game missed), Kris Letang (7th) and Zybnek Michalek (7th) who are out with concussions… Entering the game Brent Johnson was 8-1-1 with a 1.99 goals against average lifetime against the Senators…Aaron Asham recorded his 200th career point with a second period assist on Sullivan’s goal…Pascal Dupuis played his 700th NHL game Friday.
