Wideman and Turris score in third as Senators rally to beat Bruins 3-1

By Darren Desaulniers, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA – The Ottawa Senators are finally producing some offence. And it’s been at the expense of arguably two of the best goalies in the league.

Chris Wideman and Kyle Turris scored in the third period as Ottawa rallied for a 3-1 win over Tuukka Rask and the Boston Bruins on Thursday.

The win came on the heels of a 4-3 victory over the league-best Canadiens and Carey Price on Tuesday in Montreal. Before producing seven goals in their last six periods of action, the Senators had struggled to score with just 12 goals in their nine previous outings.

“Huge win for us. We just have to keep the momentum going now. We’re playing well,” Turris said.

“We played real strong defensively and in the neutral zone. It was just an all-around solid game for us.”

Mark Stone tied the game in the second period for the Senators (12-7-1) and Craig Anderson turned aside 19 shots, including seven in the third period, for the win.

David Pastrnak had the only goal for the Bruins (11-9-0), who got a 23-save performance from Rask.

The goal for Wideman was his first of the season.

After Rask made a save off Derick Brassard, Torey Krug tried to clear the puck but he put it right onto the stick of Wideman, whose shot bounced off Bruins defenceman Dominic Moore in front of Rask and in.

That goal at 6:28 gave the Senators their first lead of the game before Turris added to that lead at 10:16 after he took a pass from Bobby Ryan and was all alone in front of Rask.

Bruins coach Claude Julien was less than pleased with the performance of his team.

“I think the whole game there was poor puck management in my estimation. We’ve been a better team than that. It’s disappointing tonight in an important game like this we came out with one of worst efforts in probably a month,” Julien said.

“I didn’t like our game tonight, decision making, puck management, I would say there were a lot of no shows, as well. Those are things that can’t happen in these kind of games. Definitely not happy with not just the outcome, but our team. Definitely we need to be better.”

After their four-goal outburst over the Canadiens Tuesday, the Senators were hoping their scoring woes were perhaps a thing on the past.

But the first period started with the same problems that had plagued them over the previous nine games before Tuesday.

The Senators had a flurry of scoring chances but they were unable to score and went into the first intermission trailing 1-0. It was the 15th time in 20 games this season the Senators have surrendered the game’s opening goal.

“We’ve done it enough times where it doesn’t faze us anymore,” Anderson said after the game.

“We’re becoming a more resilient group, a more veteran group where we don’t play to the scoreboard, we just play our way, the way we’re supposed to whether we’re up a goal or down a goal. I think we’ve grown here since the start of the year.”

After fanning on his first opportunity in front of the net, Pastrnak spun and banked a backhand shot off Anderson and in for a power-play goal with just 11 seconds remaining in the first period.

The chances for both teams dropped off in the second period with just 11 combined shots, but the Senators were able to make good on one of their four shots in the period to tie the game.

Mike Hoffman’s pass sent Stone in alone on Rask, and after a backhand to forehand move Stone was able to slip the puck in the net at 13:23 to even the affair at a goal apiece.

“I made a little fake and got him to bite on it. At that time of the game, 1-0 we were down, so I just wanted to make a play and it was a big time of the game to try and help your team.”

Just prior to that goal, Ottawa’s Ryan Dzingel made his return to the game after taking an Erik Karlsson shot to the side of the head in the first period.

Notes: Fredrik Claesson and Max McCormick were scratches for the Senators Thursday. Colin Miller, Zdeno Chara and Anton Khudobin were scratches for the Bruins…Hoffman turned 27 Thursday while Claesson turned 24… On Tuesday the Bruins became just the second franchise in NHL history to score 20,000-plus lifetime goals. The Montreal Canadiens are the other.

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