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Ottawa Senators top Boston Bruins for another tight win

By Chris Stevenson, The Sports Xchange
Ottawa Senators' Kyle Turris (7) scores. UPI/Rob Cornforth
Ottawa Senators' Kyle Turris (7) scores. UPI/Rob Cornforth | License Photo

OTTAWA -- The Ottawa Senators are comfortable playing tight games this season and their patience paid off again Thursday night.

Chris Wideman and Kyle Turris scored third-period goals and Ottawa rallied for a 3-1 victory over the Boston Bruins.

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The Senators (12-7-1) gave up the first goal for the 15th time in 20 games this season, the worst figure in the league. Despite falling behind first, Ottawa came back again.

Mark Stone started the comeback with 6:37 remaining in the second. Wideman and Turris finished off the comeback by scoring in a span of 3:48.

David Pasternak scored a power-play goal for the Bruins and Tukka Rask made 23 saves. Boston (11-9-0) lost for the third time in four games.

"We've done it enough times where it doesn't faze us anymore," Senators goaltender Craig Anderson (10-4-1) said. "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."

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The Senators, playing their suffocating neutral zone game, forced the Bruins into turnovers in key areas of the ice that lead to goals.

Turris scored after Boston center David Krejci turned the puck over. Wideman scored shortly after Bruins defenseman Torey Krug cleared the puck right on his stick.

"I think the whole game there was poor puck management in my estimation," Bruins coach Claude Julien said. "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."

Wideman gave the Senators a 2-1 lead with his first goal of the season when Krug cleared the puck onto Wideman's stick and his shot from the right point banked off Bruins center Dominic Moore, beating Rask low to the stick side at 6:28 of the third period.

Turris scored his ninth at 10:16, working a nice give-and-go with Bobby Ryan and beating Rask with a shot to the glove side.

"It was a beauty," Turris said of Ryan's pass. "I knew he was behind me coming into the zone so I just dropped it for him and tried to get in behind the D-man to try and get a rebound. He made a gorgeous play to fake the shot and slide it between the D-man's stick and skates. The goalie was already down so I just tried to put it up."

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Stone, who has three goals and three assists in his past five games, tied the close-checking game 1-1 when he took a deft pass by Mike Hoffman just inside the Bruins blue line and skated in on Rask. After a fake onto his forehand, he tucked the puck behind Rask for his fifth goal of the season and his second goal in as many games.

Pastrnak, back in the lineup after missing three games with an upper body injury, opened the scoring with 10.1 seconds left in the first period on the power play.

With Senators right winger Chris Neil in the penalty box for interference, a shot to the left of Anderson got caught up in a knot of players at the edge of the crease. When it dropped to the ice, Bruins left winger Matt Belesky knocked it in front to an unguarded Pasternak. He fanned on his forehand attempt then wheeled around and banked a backhand shot off Anderson for his 11th goal of the season in his 15th game.

NOTES: The Bruins played without D Zdeno Chara, who sustained a lower body injury in Tuesday's 4-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues. Boston coach Claude Julien said Chara is expected to miss at least two games. ... Senators LW Ryan Dzingel left the game at 14:15 of the first period when he was hit in the side of the head with a shot off the stick of Senators D Erik Karlsson. He returned in the second period. ... Boston D Kevan Miller, who has not played this season because of a broken hand, played his first game of the season. ... Senators D Dion Phaneuf was in the lineup after missing practice on Wednesday. He needed a day off because he was sore, he said. The Senators called up D Fredrik Claesson from Binghamton of the AHL on Thursday just in case. ... With RW Bobby Ryan returning to the lineup after missing two games with a bruised right index finger, LW Max McCormick was a scratch along with Claesson. ... The Bruins assigned C Sean Kuraly to Providence of the AHL. The 23-year-old didn't have a point in five games this season.

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