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Thursday, Mar. 23 7:00pm ET
Ontario bragging rights go to Sens | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
KANATA, Ontario (AP) -- Thanks to the scoring of Radek Bonk, the Ottawa Senators are still alive in the Northeast Division title chase. Bonk scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period to lead Ottawa to a 3-2 victory over Toronto on Thursday night. "It was a huge game for us," said Ottawa's Andreas Dackell, who gave the Senators a 2-0 lead midway through the first period. "We still have a chance. We played really solidly, especially on defense. They really stood them up well." Rob Zamuner and Andreas Dackell also scored for the Senators, who trail the Maple Leafs by three points in the division chase. Ottawa is attempting to catch Toronto and repeat as division champion with nine games remaining. "We knew if we are going to catch them we had to win tonight," Bonk said. "There were good chances on both sides and Tom Barrasso made the big saves for us." Yanic Perreault and Nik Antropov each had a goal and an assist for Toronto, which lost the season series with Ottawa 3-1-1. "You can have excuses all the time," Toronto coach Pat Quinn said. "But three losses in a row is a lot." With the game tied 2-2 and Ottawa on the power play, Sami Salo's shot from just inside the blue line hit Danny Markov's skate and Bonk fired the rebound over goalie Curtis Joseph with 9:48 remaining for his 20th goal of the season. The game was Toronto's first at the Corel Centre since March 11, when Marian Hossa swung his stick at a loose puck during Toronto's 4-2 win and inadvertently struck Toronto defenseman Bryan Berard, who may lose the vision in his right eye. Zamuner opened the scoring on a 2-on-1 rush 5:02 into the game, firing Daniel Alfredsson's rebound past Joseph. Dackell intercepted a pass by Markov and beat Joseph with a back-hander from close range at 13:08 to give Ottawa a 2-0 lead. Antropov buried Sergei Berezin's rebound past Ottawa's Tom Barrasso with 55 seconds left in the first to make it 2-1. Joseph, among the league leaders in all major goaltending categories, made strong saves on Hossa and Vinnie Prospal as Ottawa built a 13-3 shot advantage during the first. Ottawa outshot Toronto 36-27 overall. Perreault tapped Antropov's rebound into the open side to tie it with the only goal of the second period at 12:19. Barrasso made big saves on Antropov, Mats Sundin and Berezin in the last four minutes to preserve the win. "We're in a bit of a funk, that's for sure," Joseph said. "We had a couple of good chances to tie the game but he (Barrasso) was strong." | ALSO SEE NHL Scoreboard Toronto Clubhouse Ottawa Clubhouse Leafs boss Dryden wants visors to be mandatory
RECAPS Florida 3 Boston 1
Ottawa 3
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