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Tuesday, Jan. 2 7:00pm ET
Blues' five-game road win streak halted | |||
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OTTAWA (AP) -- Andre Roy might be up all night reliving his first goal in nearly a year. Roy scored his first goal in 56 games -- dating to last Feb. 1, and Rob Zamuner also scored as the Ottawa Senators ended a four-game losing streak Tuesday night with a 3-1 victory over the St. Louis Blues. "I said, 'Finally!' " Roy said. "It's a huge relief. I'll sleep -- I won't sleep, actually, because I'll probably watch every channel's news to see the goal again, again, again, and again, just to make sure." Marian Hossa added an empty-net goal and Patrick Lalime stopped 33 shots -- giving up only Pierre Turgeon's 17th goal in the second period -- as the Senators ended their season-worst, six-game winless streak. "It was a big challenge for us and everybody was ready for it," Lalime said. "Everybody came here to play and it's a big team win." Roy, who scored four goals last season, has five career goals in 116 games. "That's not the main thing they ask me to do here, but I said it's going to come, one time, just to be patient," Roy said. "It feels good to finally get it against a team like that. It's a big win for us." St. Louis, 10-4-2 on the road, had a five-game road-winning streak snapped. The Blues, 13-2-1 in their last 16 games, fell to 26-6-4. They had not lost on the road since they were beaten 3-0 at Edmonton on Nov. 14. St. Louis captain Chris Pronger admitted that he and his teammates aren't used to losing. "You kind of sit there and wonder how you're supposed to feel," Pronger said. "We're not looking to lose, but sometimes it's nice that guys get the feeling that, 'Hey, this isn't what we like, and not the way we want to play it.' "We've got to come to play each and every night. It gives you a little bit of adversity and you've got to use it to your advantage. Hopefully, down the stretch run toward the playoffs we'll be able to draw back on that and use it to our advantage." Ottawa killed three straight penalties within the first 10:38 of the game as St. Louis held a 15-8 shots advantage in the opening period. "I think the big difference was the first three power plays we had," Turgeon said. "We had some good chances. That could have been a big difference if we had scored right there." The Senators, who also failed on their first power-play opportunity, took a 1-0 lead with 2:10 left in the period on a play started by a fine pass from the corner by Andreas Dackell. Dackell's pass went to the slot and set up Roy, who ended his drought when he slapped a shot over the shoulder of goalie Roman Turek. Zamuner made it 2-0 at 6:03 of the second when he took a pass from Martin Havlat in the Blues zone and fired a quick shot past Turek for his 12th goal. Turgeon scored on St. Louis' fourth power play with 1:54 left in the second, drawing the Blues within one, when his wrist shot from the right circle beat Lalime after he was set up by Jochen Hecht's cross-ice pass. After allowing 27 shots through the first two periods, Ottawa tightened up in the third as St. Louis managed just seven shots, none particularly dangerous. "They're the best team in the league right now," Lalime said. "They show up to play every night and they did it again tonight. We knew they were going to battle so it was just a matter of playing our game. We scored some big goals to get the momentum and killed some big penalties. That was key." Game notesSt. Louis coach Joel Quenneville used his team's timeout when Senators D Jason York was penalized 8:38 into the first. ... The Blues, who beat Edmonton on Monday to cap a 4-1 homestand, played their only road game in the midst of eight home games. ... It was the only regular-season meeting between the teams. ... Senators forward Magnus Arvedson returned to the lineup after missing 19 games with a broken left foot. ... Ottawa also lost four straight from Nov. 9-16. |
ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard St. Louis Clubhouse Ottawa Clubhouse RECAPS Ottawa 3 St. Louis 1 AUDIO/VIDEO   Goalie Patrick Lalime somehow gets a glove on an Al MacInnis shot.avi: 847 k RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1 ATHLETESDIRECT Chris Pronger Official Site | ||