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Friday, December 31, 1999
Stinging the B's
Sens close out 1999 with win, 4-game unbeaten streak
Not in a thousand years could 20th Century Fox script a better ending for the Senators' Millennium Party last night at the Corel Centre.
Lights. Drama. Action. This one had it all. Heck, it even had a home-town hero bringing down the curtain.
"The only bigger way to end this slump would be scoring in the seventh game of the Stanley Cup Final," said Senators defenceman Jason York. "I'll tell you what, it's nice to get it done. This is a monkey off my back."
The Senators won't pop the champagne until tonight, but you couldn't blame them for feeling a little bubbly after York ended a 79-game regular-season goal-scoring slump at 1:23 of OT to seal a 5-4 victory over the Boston Bruins.
Playing front of a packed house of 18,500, York took a pass from captain Daniel Alfredsson and fired it by Boston goaltender Byron Dafoe to complete a comeback from a two-goal third-period deficit.
Coach Jacques Martin personally delivered the puck to York -- an Ottawa native -- afterwards to make sure it's kept in a special place, because it was the Senators' first OT win in eight attempts this season.
"It hasn't been 79 games, but it's good to score," said York. "I scored last year in the playoffs against Buffalo, so it's been something like 36 games. But really, I wasn't worried about it. I'm just glad we won.
"I've just been trying to fire shots that get through and it always seemed like the goaltender would make the save, or they'd get deflected into the corner."
After giving up three power-plays goals and falling behind 4-2 in the second period, it looked like the Senators were going to have to wait until next year to get another victory against the pesky Bruins.
SENATORS ROLLING
Then the Senators rallied to extend their unbeaten streak to four games. They now have only one loss in their last 10 games (5-1-4) thanks to goals by Magnus Arvedson and Shawn McEachern, who tied it up to send it to OT.
"After the second, we weren't really concerned because they had so many power play goals and there was so much penalty killing going on out there that guys weren't getting a chance to play," said McEachern.
"We just knew we had to go out in the third period and get back to executing in 5-on-5 situations. We didn't really feel like we were playing that bad and we just had to get back on our game."
But it did look bleak when goaltender Ron Tugnutt was pulled by Martin after 40 minutes because he gave up four goals on 17 shots: He was replaced by Patrick Lalime for the fourth time this season.
While Tugnutt couldn't be fingered for what was happening on the ice, the Senators needed to change something and it was purely their determination to get the win in the third that allowed them to beat a tough Dafoe.
"We kept going at them," said Ottawa centre Radek Bonk, who scored his first goal in seven games and had an assist. "The big thing for us was that we had everybody contributing here tonight."
Not all the news was good, with centre Mike Fisher leaving the game with a knee injury. He'll be re-evaluated today, but at least he gets a few days to recover before the Senators host New Jersey on Monday.
For now, the players can savour the win.
"It was good because Yorkie doesn't score that often, and I'm from Boston and I always like to beat them," said McEachern.
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