ANAHEIM, Calif. - Travis Moen helped shut down Ottawa's big three, then scored a goal that trio would have been proud of. Moen, part of Anaheim's primary checking unit, took a pass in the slot from Rob Niedermayer and snapped the puck past Ray Emery with 2:51 left, giving the Ducks a 3-2 victory over the Senators in the Stanley Cup finals opener Monday night.
Moen's fifth of the playoffs came after Ryan Getzlaf's tying goal 11:25 earlier erased the 2-1 lead Ottawa carried into the third period.
In the first matchup of the teams this season, Moen, along with Niedermayer and Samuel Pahlsson, held Ottawa's top line of Daniel Alfredsson, Jason Spezza and Dany Heatley to two assists and handed the Senators their first series-opening loss in these playoffs.
Mike Fisher staked Ottawa to a 1-0 lead in the first period with a power-play goal, and defenseman Wade Redden also scored on the man advantage in the second.
Andy McDonald scored in the first period for the Ducks, who will look to take a 2-0 lead at home on Wednesday night.
The Senators looked ready to win their first Stanley Cup finals game since the franchise was reborn in 1992, but the Ducks fought back and stole it away. Ottawa lost only one game in each of its other three playoff series and now faces its first deficit.
Jean-Sebastien Giguere made 18 saves to improve to 10-3 in the playoffs. Getzlaf's goal put the Ducks in a great position : Anaheim is 13-0 in the playoffs when scoring at least twice.
Then Moen put them right where they want to be - ahead in the finals.
Even after grabbing an early lead, Ottawa goalie Ray Emery and the rest of the Senators showed a bit of rust in the first period following an eight-day layoff.
After leaving juicy rebounds and looking a bit unsteady in his crease, Emery bounced back in the second period, stopping all 10 Anaheim shots, including one he grabbed out of the air as it threatened to bound past him.
Redden broke a 1-1 tie in the middle frame, making up for losing the puck in the opening period that led to McDonald's tying goal.
It was nearly enough to give the Senators a win in their first venture out of the Eastern time zone since March. Ottawa fell to 7-2 on the road in the playoffs.
The Ducks, off five days since eliminating Detroit, seemed to take control after McDonald tied it, but gave back the momentum to the Senators by taking penalties. That is a common theme for Anaheim, the NHL's most-penalized team during the regular season at 17.8 minutes a game.
It could've been even worse for the Ducks in the second period, but they were able to kill off a 5-on-3 disadvantage that lasted 1:35 - and nearly scored a goal that would've haunted Emery.
With the seconds dwindling on the power play, Emery came far out of his net to save time and fired the puck up ice. The pass was intercepted by Getzlaf outside the blue line, but his quick attempt at a strange empty-net goal went wide.
Not only did Moen, Niedermayer and Pahlsson keep Ottawa scoreless during even-strength play, the unit also got 12 shots on goal.
"Five-on-five we played well," Moen said, "the way we wanted to: physical. They got two power-play goals on us and we have to shore that up."
Alfredsson and Spezza, ranked second and third in postseason scoring, teamed to set up Redden's third of the playoffs. Alfredsson had scored a goal in five straight road games, and Spezza had multiple points in six consecutive away from Ottawa, but both streaks were snapped.
Emery almost pulled it out anyway. He was left to catch his breath following an acrobatic glove save in the second period, taking a moment to kneel in the crease with his back to the ice and his head gazing upward.
That period played out at such a frantic up-and-down pace that there were no whistles for a span of 6:47 - showcasing exactly the action the NHL wanted when rules were changed following the 2004-05 lockout. The Ducks turned it up in the third with 14 shots.
As has been Ottawa's style throughout the opening period of series in this year's playoffs, the Senators grabbed an early lead. While Fisher's power-play goal gave them the edge and some jump, Anaheim's hard-hitters took it away.
"I thought we were physical, and as the game went on, we wore their defense down a little bit," McDonald said.
The best lick of the period came from seldom-used Ducks forward Drew Miller, who rammed Redden along the boards to the right of Emery. Redden fell to the ice and coughed up the puck to Teemu Selanne, who fed it into the slot to McDonald for a snap shot past Emery's glove to tie it at 10:55.
While Ducks teammates Scott and Rob Niedermayer grabbed most of the brotherly headlines in Anaheim, Miller exacted a little revenge for his sibling Ryan, the Buffalo Sabres' top goalie who was eliminated by the Senators in the Eastern Conference finals.
Miller spent all season in the AHL and got only 2:15 of ice time in the playoffs before being scratched the previous 11 games. He made the most of his second shift Monday and was rewarded with four more in the second half of the period.
It was the first time in series-opening first periods that the Senators didn't grab a multi-goal lead.
Notes:@ The Senators hadn't played in the Pacific time zone since Dec. 9, 2005, at Vancouver. ... Ottawa had been 8-0 when scoring first. ... California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dropped the ceremonial first puck.
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий