Phillips scored twice in his 800th
regular-season game, and Pascal Leclaire made 25 saves, leading the
Ottawa Senators to a 6-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on
Thursday night.
Phillips, who entered with one goal
in 18 games, scored goals 2:03 apart in the third to put Ottawa up 5-1
and chase Pittsburgh goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
“I’m not expected to, for sure,”
Phillips said. “It feels good to do it and it felt like one of those
high energy games, for us anyways, and it’s nice.”
Milan Michalek got his 100th career
goal and Matt Carkner, Chris Kelly and Jonathan Cheechoo also scored
for Ottawa, which won its second in a row. Mike Fisher had three
assists for the Senators.
“Philly had to wait until his 800th
to get two in a row but that was pretty sweet,” Carkner said. “He
played really well tonight for us, a solid game and just that he got
those two goals was huge for us. We’re very proud of him.”
Jordan Staal scored early in the
first, and Evgeni Malkin had a power-play goal late in the third for
Pittsburgh, which gave up six straight goals after taking a 1-0 lead
1:09 in.
Fleury, who made 19 saves, left 7:12
into the third after allowing five goals. Brent Johnson stopped six of
seven shots the rest of the way.
Maxime Talbot made his season debut for Pittsburgh and Sergei Gonchar returned to the Penguins’ injury-depleted defense corps.
Talbot, who had surgery on his left
shoulder in July, played for the first time since scoring both goals in
Pittsburgh’s 2-1 win over Detroit last spring in the seventh game of
the Stanley Cup final.
“It definitely feels good to be
back,” said Talbot, who was called for tripping on his first shift and
played a total of 13:17. “Obviously you want to come back in a winning
situation but personally I think I was lucky enough to have a couple of
good shifts and I had ice time so it’s good to be back out there.”
Gonchar, who missed 12 games after
he broke his left wrist on Oct. 20, played 25:30, the most ice time of
any player on either team.
“I think good additions back in our
lineup,” coach Dan Bylsma said. “It was our first game for Max in a
long, long time and he brought his energy and he was effective, he was
effective in the offensive zone and I liked that. Sergei, we asked him
to play a lot of minutes tonight. It’s tough for him to get back in
there but definitely our power play’s a bit more dangerous with him out
there.”
Jay McKee — sidelined by an infected
finger following Monday night’s 5-2 win over Anaheim — became the
latest Pittsburgh blue-line loss, joining Kris Letang, Brooks Orpik and
Alex Goligoski.
Carkner got his second goal of the
season 12:16 in on a slap shot past Fleury to tie it at 1 after Staal
deflected Pascal Dupuis‘ pass beyond Leclaire to give Pittsburgh an
early lead.
Michalek reached his milestone to
give Ottawa a 2-1 lead on a power play 2:31 into the second. He
deflected Daniel Alfredsson‘s slap shot past Fleury for his ninth goal
of the season.
Kelly, who was sent off for tripping
with 49 seconds left in the second, scored his first goal of the season
on a breakaway 1:29 into the third after coming out of the penalty box
to put Ottawa up 3-1.
“Right after the power play’s over within a 30-second span we’re down 3-1 and they had the momentum at that point,” Bylsma said.
Phillips drove a slap shot past Fleury at 5:09 and scored again at 7:12 for his first multigoal game since Nov. 22, 2001.
Cheechoo beat Johnson with an unassisted effort for his second goal at 13:06.
Malkin scored his fifth on a power play at 17:19.
Notes
Gonchar had two goals and six
assists in nine games when he suffered his injury. … Phillips, chosen
first overall by Ottawa in the 1996 entry draft, has 54 goals and 155
assists since joining the Senators in 1997-98. … Michalek, who
appeared in his 336th regular-season game, scored 91 goals with San
Jose from 2003-09.