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 After his team fell behind 2-0, Ryan assisted on Ottawa's first
tally late in the second period, then scored successive goals,
including the overtime winner, as the Senators beat the St. Louis
Blues 3-2 Monday at Scottrade Center.
"Big win -- huge," Ryan said. "I thought we were engaged from the
beginning, but coming in down one (in the first intermission) wasn't
ideal, but we had chances early. I thought we sustained the pressure
pretty good.
"We took a little water on in the third for a bit, but we found a
way to win."
Ottawa snapped a three-game losing streak and improved their road
record to 9-10-2. The Senators (19-15-6) are among seven teams in
the hunt for the last four playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.
A character win?
"Yeah," said Ottawa goalie Andrew Hammond, who made 36 saves. "We
got that first one, and it opened the door for us."
Right winger Mike Hoffman scored the Senators' first goal on a power
play, off a pass from Ryan with 1:14 left in the second period.
Hoffman's drive from the top of the left circle hit Blues goalie
Brian Elliott under the right arm, then slithered in to cut St.
Louis' lead to 2-1.
"You just have to stay with it," Hoffman said. "We got one, and it
seemed to loosen us up a bit, then we started going from there."
Ryan tied the score 2-2 at 5:01 of the final period with another
power-play goal. Just four seconds after defenseman Jay
Bouwmeester's tripping foul, Ryan took Kyle Turris' winning draw and
fired a wrist shot from the right point. The screened shot went in.
"Fortunately for us, our power play got us two (goals) in 60
minutes, and we were able to win in overtime," Hoffman said.
With up-and-down action in the three-on-three overtime, each team
had a variety of three-on-one rushers but didn't manage a shot on
goal. Ryan made the only shot of OT count, taking a pass from
defenseman Chris Wideman and deking Elliott before lighting the red
lamp with a backhand.
Ryan described the overtime as "rope-a-dope."
"That's exactly the way we drew it up," he joked. "Fall down, swipe
at the puck, get it back somehow, and when you get it across, you're
going to get it back and it's going to lay on your tape. So the rest
of it is pretty easy for me."
The assist was big for Wideman, a St. Louis native.
"Pretty cool," he said. "Special coming back here, a building where
I watched a lot of games as a kid. To get the win on the road and
able to do it in front of family and friends is even better."
"Pretty cool" isn't exactly how Blues coach Ken Hitchcock would have
described the game. He would use, uh, other terms.
"We had a chance to bury them, but we let them off the hook," he
said after finally meeting media long after the game. He described
the second period as "complete domination. It could have been four
or five to nothing.
"We had a chance to bury them offensively, and defensively, but we
didn't."
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Right winger Troy Brouwer staked the Blues to a 1-0 lead at 14:16 of
the first period, scoring for the seventh time this season. On a
transition play from deep in the Blues' zone, Brouwer worked the
give-and-go with left winger Alex Steen in the neutral zone, then
broke in on right wing. He fended off Ottawa defenseman Patrick
Wiercioch before beating Hammond upstairs. Center Paul Stastny also
assisted for the Blues.
"I'm here to help the team win, and I need to be scoring to do
that," Brouwer said. "To get on the board and score is a
confidence-booster for me."
Blues defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk made it 2-0 with a power-play
goal at 7:42 of the second period. With right winger Mark Stone off
for hooking, Shattenkirk rattled the post with a slap shot
straightaway from just inside the blue line. Hammond reacted as
though he hadn't seen the shot behind a screen from center David
Backes. Steen and right winger Vladimir Tarasenko assisted.
But that was it for St. Louis' scoring.
"It's a big win," Wideman said. "Digging, tying the game up and
figuring it out in overtime is pretty awesome."
The Blues (23-14-5) lost a third consecutive game, though they
received a point for the tie at the end of regulation. Their
winless-in-regulation streak reached six games, though they also
have an OT win and a shootout win in that span.
St. Louis has earned points in seven straight against the Senators,
including two shootout losses and two overtime losses (3-0-4).
NOTES: Blues C/LW Kyle Brodziak was a healthy scratch for the first
time this season, though he had seen limited playing time since
returning to the lineup from a muscle strain and bruise of the right
leg. ... LW Scott Upshall replaced Brodziak, returning to the Blues'
lineup after being scratched in two of the previous three games. D
Robert Bortuzzo was scratched for the second successive game. ...
Blues LW Jaden Schwartz and LW Steve Ott are out with injuries. ...
Blues G Brian Elliott played for the fifth time in his career
against Ottawa, which drafted him in 2003. The start was his first
after not playing in the previous three. ... Ottawa scratched D
Jared Cowen and L Dave Dziurzynski, each for the third consecutive
game. ... Ottawa D Cody Ceci, LW Clarke MacArthur, LW Milan Michalek
and D Chris Phillips are out with injuries.
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