Dennis Seidenberg Snaps Scoring Drought With Long-Range Blast Lifting Bruins to Win Over Ottawa

BOSTON –- It wasn't the way Dennis Seidenberg expected to break his scoring drought, but the Bruins defenseman –- and the rest of his teammates — will certainly take it.

Seidenberg fired home a shot from center ice that bounced once and somehow eluded Ottawa netminder Craig Anderson, snapping a 3-3 tie 7:09 into the third period and capping a Bruins rally for a 4-3 victory over the Senators Tuesday night at the Garden.

"Well it was kind of a riser," Seidenberg said. "I don't know if it was a lucky bounce, but the way it came off my stick it just seemed to bounce off the ice and was kind of rising up and was tough to read for him and somehow went in."

Seidenberg was skeptical of calling it a lucky goal, largely because the only luck he's had of late has been bad.

"I don't know about luck with all that's happened in the last five games, all those goals that I've scored on my own net," Seidenberg said. "For some reason I just happened to score from the red line like I did last year, but I'll take those goals for sure."

Seidenberg is no stranger to long-range goals. He scored from the red line last year as well, though that goal required a little more trickery. He faked a dump-in to the corner to lure Lightning goalie Mike Smith out of the net, then fired the puck into the empty cage.

Tuesday's tally was more direct, and even more unexpected, though his coach had an inkling something might happen on the play after Seidenberg had a near miss earlier in the night.

"He almost had another one earlier in the game," Claude Julien said. "I think it was in the first period. He took a shot, and the puck just took a hop. It's funny, but when he took the shot at the net, I looked closely, because somehow, you know, you had that feeling that it would be an interesting shot, and the puck seems to just take a quick bounce both times that he shot it from the red line. I mean, it's a winning goal tonight, so we'll take it."

It was Seidenberg's third goal of the season, but his first in 14 games. He last scored back on Dec. 28 in Phoenix, and that one was a game-winner as well as Seidenberg scored in overtime for a 2-1 victory over the Coyotes.

"I think it's about time that some good things start to happen to Seids," defense partner Joe Corvo said. "That's nice to see. I know it makes him happy and gives him some confidence. I like playing with him, so the more confident he is the better.

"That was pretty good," Corvo added of Seidenberg's goal on Tuesday. "That was pretty much the equivalent of the old dump-in off the dasher going in. He had one like that in the first period that if it was on net it would have went in. It was exactly the same thing. That second one was on net and it went in."

With Seidenberg now scoring twice from long range in the last two years and narrowly missing another, does Corvo think he might be able to connect from center ice?

“I can shoot as hard as I want from there and it’s never going in,” said Corvo, who scored twice in Columbus on Dec. 10 but has not hit the back of the net in any of the other 47 games he’s played for the Bruins this season.

Bruins captain Zdeno Chara has connected more frequently, including a power-play tally on Tuesday to open the scoring. That was Chara's eighth goal of the season, but he was more impressed with Seidenberg's strike.

"Dennis was trying to put the puck on the net and it was a really good shot, it bounced, and maybe changed the direction and you know went in," Chara said. "It was a huge goal for us and sometimes you need to have a little bit of luck on your side and that’s what it was and I'm glad we got another goal so it was great."

Chara made some noise with his own powerful shot over the weekend, breaking his own record as he retained the hardest shot title at the All-Stars Skills Competition with a 108.8 mph blast. So what did he think of Seidenberg's shot?

"I told him it was 110 [mph]," Chara said.

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