Thursday, February 02, 2006

Sens surrender ten goals in 120 minutes

It's a bit of a mystery how one of the leagues most defensively skilled squads all of a sudden are giving up goals, but it's a mystery that Bryan Murray will have to try and solve in quick order,

For the second game in a row the Sens abandoned their goaltender, this time leaving Domenik Hasek on his own to face a New Jeresy Devil team that hadn't scored a goal in over 2 and a half games. Guess they liked the feeling, as New Jersey exploded for five goals on the way to a 5-3 defeat of the Senators.

Scorers for the Devils included Zach Parise, Grant Marshall, Jamie Langenbrunner, Sergei Brylin and Eric Rasmussen, while Martin Brodeur held up his end of the game with 27 saves. Antoine Vermette, Dany Heatley and Patrick Eaves countered for the Sens but it was not enough to stop the losing stats at one.

The Jersey win ended a two game losing skid for the Devils, while Ottawa has lost two in a row and played some sloppy hockey along the way. Miscues in both ends of the rink have cost the Sens both in Boston and New Jersey in the last two games. It's uncharacteristic behavior for a team that normally is in control of a game from start to finish.

The Senators move on to Pittsburgh and a match with Sidney Crosby and the Penguins on Thursday night, New Jersey has the night off resting up for their match on Friday against the Carolina Hurricanes, a night in which they will retire the jersey of crowd favorite Devil Scott Stevens.

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