Spezza's 31st Goal Leads Sens Past Blues

[March 21, 2008]  OTTAWA (AP) -- Jason Spezza scored his 31st goal and Martin Gerber stopped 24 shots to lead the Ottawa Senators to a 3-2 win over the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night.

Antoine Vermette and Christoph Schubert also scored for Ottawa, fifth in the Eastern Conference with 89 points, two more than the New York Rangers.

The Senators remained three points behind Montreal, the leader in the Northeast Division and the East. The Canadiens won 4-2 in Boston on Thursday and have played one more game than Ottawa.

Gerber made his ninth straight start for Ottawa, which has eight games left -- home and away against each of its four division opponents.

Jamal Mayers and Jeff Woywitka scored 2:44 apart midway through the first period to give St. Louis a short-lived 2-1 lead.

Schubert scored his seventh goal later in the first to tie it at 2 and Spezza restored Ottawa's lead 7:39 into the second when he drove the net and redirected Dany Heatley's pass beyond Hannu Toivonen.

Blues defenseman Barret Jackman left St. Louis short-handed for 4 minutes with 8:20 remaining in the game when he had an unsportsmanlike penalty added for arguing after he was called for high-sticking Mike Fisher.

Toivonen made 21 saves for the Blues, who avoided setting a franchise record Tuesday when they ended a 10-game road losing streak with a 4-3 shootout win in Montreal.

St. Louis is 1-6-1 on its season-high, nine-game road trip, that ends Sunday in Chicago.

Vermette gave Ottawa an early lead when he took Chris Kelly's centering pass and beat Toivonen for his 18th goal at 2:06.

Mayers tied it at 9:29 as he was left alone in front of Gerber to redirect in Jackman's shot from the left point.

Woywitka put the Blues ahead with his second goal at 12:13.

Schubert drew the Senators even at 2 when he beat Toivonen with a shot from the slot on Dean McAmmond's centering pass from behind the net.

Notes: The Blues hadn't played in Ottawa since a 3-1 loss on Feb. 10, 2004. ... Spezza has a five-game point streak, recording four goals and three assists. ... RW Brian McGrattan was the only healthy scratch for Ottawa, which returned LW Nick Foligno to Binghamton (AHL) earlier Thursday.

[Associated Press]

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