Ottawa 5, Anaheim 3Hello!! Wake up!!! You’re home now, it’s time to get out there and make your presence known!! The Ottawa Senators didn’t have their mother to get them up for this Stanley Cup series, but maybe 20,000 rabid, screaming fans could. Or maybe an elbow to the head or a kicked puck might do it.
Returning home being down 2-0 in the series and having been outplayed through much of it, the Sens woke up Saturday night to post a 5-3 victory over the Anaheim Ducks. The Ducks still hold a lead in the series entering Game 4 in Ottawa Monday night. But they now know they have an Ottawa team that fed off its vocal following and finally realized they could stop waiting for their top line to awaken too.
Daniel Alfredsson’s first goal of the series went off his skate, Dean McAmmond broke a 3-3 tie late in the second period and Anton Volchenkov added an insurance goal in the third. The Senators also got goals from grinders Chris Neil and Mike Fisher. Now the Ducks know they aren’t dealing with a one-line team.
“This is the finals,” Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf said. “They got here for a reason. They didn’t get here riding one line. They got a whole team over there, the same way we do. “If it’s not one line, it’s going to be another and we’ve just got to focus on what we’ve got to do for Game 4.”
Until the Neil goal, which leaked through the glove side of Ducks goaltender Jean-Sbastien Gigure, the crowd was aching for something. In the first half of the opening 10 minutes, the Ducks had taking the edge off the pent-up frenzy at Scotiabank Place.
With a power-play goal from Andy McDonald at the 6:39 mark, the Ducks reminded the Senators they wouldn’t have an easy night.
After the Neil goal, the building and the Senators both roared back to life, and Ottawa nearly scored the go-ahead goal before the period ended.
But Corey Perry gave the Ducks a 2-1 lead at the 5:20 mark of the second, only to be countered by Mike Fisher just 27 seconds later. The Senators’ Ray Emery, who appeared to be as shaky as he was in Game 1, let in another goal two minutes later, Ryan Getzlaf getting credit for this one. Emery stopped 19 of 22 shots.
Then the ice tilted in the Senators’ favor. Wade Redden took a shot that deflected off the stick of the Ducks’ Scott Niedermayer and caromed toward a crashing Alfredsson, who was tied up with Getzlaf as he crashed the net. Alfredsson appeared to turn his left foot to direct the puck in the net past Jean-Sebastien Giguere, who finished with 24 saves. Referee Dan O’Halloran immediately waved off the goal, but the play was automatically reviewed and ultimately reversed by NHL director of hockey operations Colin Campbell. “What we ruled here, and it was discussed long and hard, was we didn’t think it was a distinct kicking motion,” said league official Mike Murphy, who works under Campbell. “We felt Alfredsson directed it in. The puck hits his skate and starts to head toward the net and then there’s movement [of his skate] toward the net.”
“I felt it was a goal all along,” Alfredsson said. “I think from the ref’s position, he thought it went off my skate. I don’t think it was kicked.”
Dean McAmmond accepted credit for a goal at 18:34 of the second period when he threw a puck out front and to the delight of a crowd already on him, Ducks defenceman Chris Pronger put it in his own net, to help close out the second period 4-3 in favor of Ottawa. Anton Volchenkov added an insurance goal in the third.
The Ducks compounded things by allowing their lack of discipline to resurface. Pronger was the guilty party in the third period when he appeared to hit McAmmond flush with his left elbow while in the defensive zone. McAmmond was motionless in the right corner for several minutes before being helped off the ice. McAmmond, who was conscious the entire time he was on the ice, did not return to the game because of a head injury.
“I didn’t see the hit,” Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said. “So I can’t make any comments on the hit. I’m sorry. If I would have reviewed it …”
“It’s not what needs to happen,” Senators Coach Bryan Murray said. “It was an elbow to the head. He was out. I can’t for the life of me understand how it was missed by four officials.”
The Ducks dissolved after that, with penalties ruining any chances for a comeback.
“We made a lot of mistakes for sure,” Niedermayer said.
Yes, like waking the sleeping Senators.
