Senators take advantage of power plays to beat Sabres

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Game Information

Arena: Scotiabank Place Location: Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Referees: Eric Furlatt, Frederick L'Ecuyer Linesmen: Scott Driscoll, Brad Kovachik

Attendance: 20,053 (108.4% full)

Team Stat Comparison
242	Goals	213
229	Goals Against	231
75	Power Play Goals	66
61	Power Play Goals Allowed	64
7	Shorthanded Goals	8
5	Shorthanded Goals Allowed	5
1121	Penalty Minutes	1098
14	Average Penalty Minutes	13

Scoring Summary
1ST PERIOD			BUF	OTT
4:02		Toni Lydman Assists: Henrik Tallinder, Jason Pominville	1	0
16:02		Jason Pominville Assists: Thomas Vanek	2	0
2ND PERIOD			BUF	OTT
1:30		Dany Heatley Assists: Jason Spezza, Chris Neil	2	1
6:07		Brendan Bell (Power Play) Assists: Daniel Alfredsson, Filip Kuba	2	2
3RD PERIOD			BUF	OTT
3:30		Daniel Alfredsson (Power Play) Assists: Jason Spezza, Filip Kuba	2	3
11:26		Brendan Bell (Power Play) Assists: Filip Kuba, Ryan Shannon	2	4

OTTAWA -- The Buffalo Sabres are three points from playoff position. If they miss the playoffs by a similar margin, they'll be bound to look back at their five losses to the Ottawa Senators.

Especially their latest.

Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said he was "embarrassed" after the Senators took advantage of an undisciplined Sabres team, scoring three goals in nine chances in a 4-2 victory Tuesday night.

Fast Facts

• The Senators improved to 12-6-3 since Cory Clouston replaced Craig Hartsburg as coach on Feb. 2.

• The Sabres are 29-28-6 after starting the season 6-0-1.

• Buffalo forward Thomas Vanek has just four points in his last nine games (two goals, one assist).

-- ESPN research

The win gave Ottawa the season series by a 5-1 margin.

"I'm very embarrassed. Embarrassed for our fans, embarrassed for how we played the last forty minutes," Ruff said. "It's not acceptable this time of year."

Brendan Bell scored twice and Filip Kuba had three assists for the Senators, giving him 31 on the season.

The Senators dominated play despite going down 2-0 after the first period. They outshot the Sabres 36-13, including 13-1 in the second period and 13-6 in the first.

"I thought we outshot them pretty good in the first period [13-6]," Senators forward Dany Heatley said. "A couple bad breaks, a couple mistakes that they scored on. Other than that I think we played a real solid game, and the shots were a pretty good indication of that."

The Sabres opened the scoring 4:02 into the game with Toni Lydman blasting in a shot from the top of the circle to the left of Senators goaltender Brian Elliott.

Jason Pominville gave Buffalo a 2-0 lead later in the period and the Sabres ended the first period with two goals on six shots.

Heatley got the Senators going with his 33rd goal just 1:30 into the second period. Ottawa tied it on a power play when Bell put a cross-ice pass from Daniel Alfredsson past Mikael Tellqvist.

It was the only power-play goal the Senators managed on five tries compared to Buffalo having none in that span.

Buffalo's penalty problems continued into the third period when Drew Stafford's elbow to Heatley's face put the Senators on the power play once again. This time they made it count, with Jason Spezza saucering a pass across to Alfredsson, who tapped it past a sprawling Tellqvist.

The Buffalo parade to the penalty box continued, and with Paul Gaustad in the box for high-sticking, Bell picked up his second power-play goal of the night. Bell scored with a scorching blast from just inside the blue line that beat Tellqvist cleanly to the glove side.

"Today we had a lot of power plays and we had a lot of opportunities to make good plays," Kuba said. "The puck was just going in for us today."

Game notes
The Sabres misfired on all four of their power plays. Ottawa was 3-for-9. ... Elliot stopped 11-of-13 shots.