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 Rebounding from a 3-1 loss to the Canadiens that saw them
surrendered 27 first-period shots, the Senators defeated the Los
Angeles Kings 5-3 Monday night at Canadian Tire Centre.
"The nice thing about playing 82 games is you don't have much time
to think about the last performance," said Senators goalie Craig
Anderson, who made 33 saves in the win over Los Angeles. "For us,
coming home, it's a good spot to have a refresh, recharge, kind of
hit the reset button.
"We're all proud people. We get embarrassed. We don't get to this
level by not being proud of what we do and what we can accomplish. I
think that drives a lot of guys to be proud of what we've done and
continue to strive for."
Winger Mike Hoffman led the Senators' attack with two goals, his
16th and 17th of the season, and an assist. Center Mika Zibanejad
had a goal and two assists, while defenseman Erik Karlsson and
center Kyle Turris had the other Ottawa goals.
Defensemen Jamie McBain and Jake Muzzin and winger Tyler Toffoli
replied for the Kings.
Los Angeles goalie Jonathan Quick made 16 saves.
Trailing 1-0 after 20 minutes, the Senators jumped ahead with four
consecutive goals in the second.
The Kings scored late in the second period, then pulled within one
in the third, but Zibanejad scored on a rebound with just over seven
minutes left to restore a two-goal margin.
"Four out of the five (Ottawa) goals, if not all of them, came from
our mistakes, and you just can't do that," Kings center Anze Kopitar
said. "You can't trade chances like that, not against a team like
that where they have so many forwards with a lot of skill. It hurt
us tonight."
The Kings (19-9-2) entered the night as one of the NHL's hottest
teams with a 7-0-2 record in their last nine games.
The Senators (16-10-5) stopped their losing streak at two games.
Ottawa coach Dave Cameron, who implored his players to show some
pride against the Kings, liked what he saw from his team.
"You're excited that it's a bounce-back game, and you're excited
they come back and responded against a real good team," Cameron
said. "It stokes a fire a little bit when you see how bad they were
the other night, but you put that away."
Hoffman, who has 13 goals in his past 14 games, had a shot at the
hat trick with Quick on the bench for an extra attacker late in the
third. However, just as he was about to shoot at the open net, Kings
defensemen Drew Doughty stopped him with a slash.
"I probably would have slashed the guy too instead of taking a minus
... take two minutes in the box," said Hoffman, who was reunited on
a line with Zibanejad. "I felt good tonight. Just trying find the
open ice in the offensive zone."
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Doughty came into the game intent on proving he is just as good as
Karlsson, the reigning Norris Trophy winner. While Karlsson was
plus-1 with a goal and an assist, Doughty finished minus-3.
"He's a great player," Karlsson said. "He's been for a number of
years now. It's fun to see the things he does out there, and I think
he was a little bit better than I was tonight. He had a little bit
more moves than I did."
While the Senators play in Washington on Wednesday, the Kings
continue a six-game road trip Thursday against the Canadiens. Before
that game, they will spend a couple of days at a ski resort outside
of Montreal.
"Probably the craziness of Montreal is not the best thing for two or
three straight days," Kopitar said. "To get away from that just a
little bit, I think it is going to freshen up our minds."
Kings coach Darryl Sutter believes the break will be good for his
team.
"We looked like a tired team tonight," he said. "It caught up with
us a little bit. That's the highest-scoring team we've played this
year. We made some fatigue mistakes, and they buried them."
NOTES: Kings C Jordan Weal was scratched as coach Darry Sutter
decided to give D Derek Forbort his roster spot and go with seven
defensemen. It is rare that one team employs a lineup that has seven
defensemen and 11 forwards, but on this night, both teams did.
Senators D Mark Borowiecki played his fourth consecutive game as the
fourth-line left winger, as LW Shane Prince was scratched for the
fourth game in a row. ... Ottawa G Craig Anderson made his 15th
consecutive start. ... Senators G Andrew Hammond, who has been out
since Nov. 12 with a concussion, dressed as the backup. ... Kings D
Nick Ebert and D Jeff Schultz were also scratched. ... Los Angeles C
Trevor Lewis could join the team on its current road trip, Sutter
said. Lewis missed his sixth game with an upper-body injury.
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