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  Thursday, Mar. 9 7:00pm ET
Shutout fever symptom of Pens' ills
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE

KANATA, Ontario (AP) -- Without Jaromir Jagr, it's understandable that the Pittsburgh Penguins would have offensive troubles. The Ottawa Senators caused them defensive problems too.

Shawn McEachern scored twice and added an assist and Patrick Lalime made 16 saves as the Senators routed the Penguins 7-0 Thursday night.

Martin Sonnenberg, Chris Phillips, Patrick Traverse
Pittsburgh's Martin Sonnenberg has a tough time getting past Ottawa's Chris Phillips, center, and Patrick Traverse.
The seven goals were Ottawa's highest total this season and tied a club record for margin of victory set Jan. 30, 1999 in a 9-2 win over the New York Islanders.

"It's the most goals we've scored, I don't know if it's they best game (we've played)," McEachern said. "They really struggled tonight. We were outshooting them right from the start, they didn't get too many shots tonight. They had a bad night."

The Penguins, who lost 3-0 to Montreal on Wednesday, were shut out in consecutive games for the first time since Feb. 7, 1980. Before Wednesday, Pittsburgh had gone 119 games without being blanked.

"It's ridiculous to play with that lack of desire two nights in a row," Brad Werenka said. "It's unacceptable. That's an embarrassment to us as individuals and to the organization."

Pittsburgh, in an eighth-place tie with Montreal for the Eastern Conference's final playoff position, is fighting to stay in the race without Jagr, who is injured. The NHL's leading scorer is out with a thigh injury.

Daniel Alfredsson had a goal and two assists and Sami Salo, Vaclav Prospal and Marian Hossa each added a goal and an assist for Ottawa. The Senators won their third straight and the team is unbeaten in a season-high seven games (5-0-2).

Andreas Dackell also scored and Wade Redden and Jason York each had two assists. Ottawa's defense combined for eight points.

"You need to have your defense on the attack," Senators coach Jacques Martin said. "Without Alexei (Yashin), we needed to get more from our back end."

Lalime earned his second shutout of the season and fifth career in the game against his original NHL team. Jean-Sebastien Aubin stopped 29 shots for Pittsburgh, which lost for the third time in four games.

Salo and McEachern gave Ottawa a 2-0 lead in the first period before Alfredsson, Dackell and Prospal scored in the second. Prospal's goal came on the power play.

"They weren't forechecking," Salo said. "It was a good effort from everybody. We didn't really have to battle."

In the third, Ottawa scored twice on a double-minor to Pittsburgh's Jan Hrdina. The Senators finished 3-for-6 with the man-advantage while the Penguins went 0-for-4.

"We have to forget about this game," Hrdina said. "When you're shut down twice in a row, obviously, it's frustrating."

Ottawa had 13 shots in each of the first two periods. The Penguins managed just five in each of those periods.
 


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RECAPS
Ottawa 7
Pittsburgh 0

Philadelphia 3
Washington 1

Vancouver 2
St. Louis 2

Toronto 6
Calgary 2

Phoenix 5
NY Islanders 0

Los Angeles 3
NY Rangers 1

AUDIO/VIDEO
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 Vaclav Prospal beats Jean-Sebastien Aubin on the power play.
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