OTTAWA — Bobby Ryan scored at 15:25 of the third period and the Ottawa Senators defeated the Boston Bruins 4-3 on Saturday night.

Patrick Wiercioch, Cory Conacher and Zack Smith also scored for the Senators. Craig Anderson stopped 29 shots to earn the victory.

Daniel Paille, Jarome Iginla and David Warsofsky scored for the Bruins. Tuukka Rask allowed three goals on 12 shots before being replaced by Chad Johnson, who allowed one goal on 18 shots.

Both teams were missing a number of key players, including both captains as the Senators were without Jason Spezza and the Bruins were without Zdeno Chara. Both sat out with lower body injuries.

Ottawa rebounded after Friday’s 5-0 loss in Boston. The Senators got off to a strong start and managed to play well enough through 60 minutes to hold off the Bruins.

Ryan scored the winner after forcing a turnover at the Ottawa blue line and breaking in alone, beating Johnson with a high backhand.

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Smith was called for a faceoff violation with two minutes left to play, leaving Ottawa short-handed. The Senators held off the hard-pressing Bruins for the win.

Earlier in the period, the Senators caught a break when what would have been Iginla’s second goal of the game was reviewed and ruled to have been kicked into the net, keeping the game tied 3-3.

Ottawa opened the scoring at 7:04 of the first as Wiercioch jumped into the play to grab a rebound and beat Rask through the legs.

The Bruins tied the game on Paille’s fourth of the season at 12:06 as he sidestepped Erik Karlsson along the sideboards and beat Anderson.

Conacher made it 2-1 for the Senators at 14:28 of the first when he tipped a Kyle Turris backhand.

The Senators made it 3-1 just 29 seconds into the second on Smith’s short-handed goal. It also marked the end of Rask’s night.

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Anderson made several good saves through the second, but had no chance on Iginla’s 12th of the season as he was left all alone at the side of the net for an easy tap-in.
Warsofsky, with his first in the NHL, tied it 3-3 at 6:36 of the third with a shot from the side boards.

GAME NOTES: C Jason Spezza and D Chris Phillips missed the game with a lower body injury. In Spezza and Phillips’ absence Kyle Turris and Erik Karlsson wore an `A’. D Eric Gryba was a healthy scratch for the Senators. … The Bruins announced D Dennis Seidenberg will miss the remainder of the season with a knee injury. D Zdeno Chara was a late scratch and is listed day to day. The Bruins were also without C Carl Soderberg. D Zach Trotman was recalled on an emergency basis and made his NHL debut.

CANADIENS 2, LIGHTNING 1: Lars Eller scored the lone shootout goal, Carey Price stopped all three shots he faced in the tiebreaker, and the Montreal Canadiens beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1 on Saturday night.

Eller made a couple moves before beating Ben Bishop on the Canadiens’ first shootout attempt.
Tomas Plekanec scored in regulation for Montreal. Price stopped 23 shots through overtime.

Martin St. Louis scored for the Lightning, who also got 20 saves in regulation and overtime from Bishop. Tampa Bay had its five-game winning streak end.

DEVILS 2, ISLANDERS 1: Cory Schneider stopped 30 shots, and Travis Zajac scored the go-ahead goal with 6:57 left when the puck went in off his face as New Jersey won on Long Island.

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Zajac was credited with his seventh goal when a shot by Marek Zidlicky struck him when he stood in front of the net. Schneider earned his first win since Nov. 30 when he shut out Buffalo.

Adam Henrique gave the Devils a 1-0 lead at 11:37 of the first period, and Frans Nielsen tied it 10:31 into the third for the Islanders, who played without captain John Tavares.

Tavares sat out because of an undisclosed lower-body injury that ended his consecutive games streak at 246.

RED WINGS 4, PANTHERS 3: Henrik Zetterberg scored a goal in his first game back from injury to lift Detroit to victory at Sunrise, Fla.

Gustav Nyquist, Brendan Smith and Daniel Alfredsson also scored for Detroit.
Jonas Gustavsson stopped 30 shots. Pavel Datsyuk had two assists.

Zetterberg returned after missing 11 games with a herniated disk in his back. Zetterberg leads the Red Wings with 31 points (12 goals, 19 assists).

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Sean Bergenheim scored two goals, and Nick Bjugstad also scored for Florida. Scott Clemmensen made 27 saves for the Panthers.

The Red Wings, who have won three of four, beat the Panthers for the first time in three games this season. The Panthers lost their third straight game.

NOTES

BLUES: Star center Alex Steen, the league’s No. 2 goal scorer, will be out indefinitely with a concussion suffered Dec. 21 against Edmonton.

Steen leads the Blues with 24 goals and 38 points in 35 games. He has six game-winning goals, second most in the league.

The Swede, who began his career in Toronto, is in his ninth season. He signed a three-year $17.4 million contract extension with the Blues this month.

WILD: Left wing Zach Parise, one of Minnesota’s best players with 15 goals and 12 assists in 37 games was placed on injured reserve because of a bruised foot.

Former Penguin Matt Cooke has taken his spot on the first line.


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