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Canwest News Service
OTTAWA – Call it the Chris Phillips danger zone, the left side boards that most goaltenders would consider a harmless area.
Unless Phillips has the puck.
The usually defensive minded defencemen flicked a shot from that familiar area, a shot tipped by Mike Fisher to beat the Washington Capitals in 4-3 in overtime Monday night.
Phillips scored his first of two goals against the Pittsburgh Penguins last week from the same spot.
So much for the theory the Senators couldn’t beat the good NHL teams.
After their third straight win over a contender, and fourth straight overall, the Senators have earned their own place among the top-ranked clubs. Ottawa sits in first place in the Northeast Division, with 27 points, passing the idle Buffalo Sabres.
The Senators had a plan to make good use of a friendly early schedule to pick up some points they are going to need down the road – perhaps even on the road to California next week.
Beating the Capitals is a particular badge of honour – the Senators had only won two of their previous eight meetings.
Third-period goals by Chris Neil and Alex Picard pulled the Senators into a 3-3 tie, setting up the late drama. Alex Ovechkin was in the penalty box for roughing when Picard scored the critical power-play goal.
With Pascal Leclaire resting lower-body injury, Brian Elliott started for the Senators and kept his team in the game until he received some late support.
After surviving an early Capitals barrage, the Senators opened the scoring on a goal by rookie winger Peter Regin, who was showing new life after sitting out against Toronto and Pittsburgh last week as a healthy scratch. Head coach Cory Clouston has been preaching about players going to the net, and Regin proved to be one of the converted, tipping a Jesse Winchester shot past goaltender Semyon Varlomov at 7:27 of the first period.
The Caps kept pressing, putting 15 shots on Elliott over the first 20 minutes, scoring twice. The first drew a chorus of boos in Scotiabank Place, not because Chris Clark scored, but how he scored – redirecting a shot off his foot.
The goal was reviewed and allowed.
Washington’s second goal was deflating to the home team – a crease pass tip- in by Brendan Morrison with just 29 seconds left in the opening period, sending the Senators to their dressing room down a goal.
Recent call-up Jay Beagle picked up a nifty souvenir – the puck from his first NHL goal – after beating Elliott on a second-period wrist shot to push the Caps lead to 3-1.
Ottawa Citizen
