Sunday was a pretty good day to be a fan of Ottawa sports.
First, congratulations to the Ottawa RedBlacks for winning the Grey Cup over the Calgary Stampeders in overtime to capture Canadian Football's ultimate prize. They did it in such Ottawa fashion, going in as the heavy underdog, getting a big 20 point lead only to cough it up and then steal a win on overtime. It is Ottawa's first real championship in some time (the length depending on what you consider a championship), and the parade on Tuesday should be fun, especially for long-suffering Ottawa football fans who have waited a long time for this.
But this is a hockey site, and don't look now, but the Senators are on a roll.
Craig Anderson won his fourth consecutive game, as he made 33 saves (with a little help from Marc Methot and Mark Borowiecki) to shut out the league's most potent offense in the New York Rangers 2-0. Borowiecki and Methot each pulled goals out of the crease in the third period to maintain the lead and keep Anderson's third shutout of the season intact.
Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored his third of the year to open the scoring (the first time in 10 games they have gotten on the board first) and Mark Stone finished off a pass from Mike Hoffman for a power play marker in the second period and that was enough.
As for the players squaring off against former teams, Derick Brassard was a non-factor, not registering a statistical event other than one shot attempt and going 41% in the faceoff circle, but he did get a nice video tribute from the Rangers. Matt Puempel, after having some choice words leading up to this game about his time in Ottawa, played just under 12 minutes, was credited with one hit, and two shot attempts in his game.
The Senators were outshot in the first period 13-7, and in the third 13-8 as the Rangers pressed hard to find the scoreboard, but Ottawa's goals came on just five second period shots against Antti Raanta in the Rangers net.
Ottawa also killed off all four of its penalties, two in the first period while the game was scoreless and two in between Pageau and Stone's goals where a power play marker would have tied the game and maybe given the Rangers some momentum.
Ottawa returns home to host the Buffalo Sabres on Tuesday night, which will be their third game in four nights with travel in between each one. They will be entering that game with a five point cushion between themselves and the Bruins, who are the first team on the outside of the playoffs looking in at this point in time. It will wrap up a busy month of 15 games, 10 of which will have been at home. It also starts a three game stretch of home games against teams that are currently outside of the playoffs (Buffalo, Philadelphia and Florida).
With a history of playing to the level of their competition, the Senators need to find a way to set the pace themselves and come away with two or three wins this week because the following five games are like running the gauntlet. The are at Pittsburgh, only the defending Stanley Cup Champs, then they head out to do their California road trim against the Stanley Cup finalist Sharks, then the tough back to back in LA and Anaheim, followed by a return home engagement against the Sharks.