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Canwest News Service
NEWARK, N.J. – Welcome back to the spotlight, Brian Elliott.
For the next month or so, the fate of the Ottawa Senators rests in the hands (and feet) of Elliott, the go-to-goaltender while Pascal Leclaire gets his face remodelled due to his fractured cheekbone.
The first test of a hectic stretch of games came Wednesday night, with Elliott staring down the ice at New Jersey Devils star Martin Brodeur, the NHL's all-time winningest goaltender, who needs only one shutout to tie Terry Sawchuk's league record of 103 blankings.
Clearly, though, success isn't going to come easy for Elliott as the Senators four-game winning streak came to an end with a 3-1 loss to the defensively-stingy Devils, a game where chances were limited and power play opportunities once again didn't exist for the Senators.
Elliott played well enough, stopping 17 of 19 shots, but he didn't outplay the future Hall of Famer in the other net.
The game-winner came off a deflection by Patrik Elias, his first of the season, with 1:26 left in the second period. Jamie Langenbrunner iced the game, scoring into an empty net with 34 seconds remaining in the third. The only other shot which eluded Elliott was an early goal from Niklas Bergfors, who took advantage of a crazy bounce off the glass, while Milan Michalek was the lone Senator to beat Brodeur, with his team-leading 11th of the season.
"It bounced off the glass and they had three guys in front, all where the puck went," Elliott said of the crazy-bounce goal. "If they know about it, it's something for us to learn when we come back here."
Elliott was generally pleased with his game, as was coach Cory Clouston, but the end result is what matters.
"Obviously, we want the win, but I thought I controlled the puck well. Once they got the (2-1) lead, it was hard to get another on them. We've got to score that (second) goal before them."
The Senators threw 25 shots at Brodeur, including some choice chances in the final period.
Brodeur robbed Jarkko Ruutu and Chris Kelly from point blank range with nine minutes left. Ruutu was stopped again with six minutes to go, but the spark came out of any late rally when Ruutu took a tripping penalty with 2:43 left.
Once again, the Senators received no power play opportunities of their own, a situation which left Clouston shaking his head in frustration.
"We had some chances," said Clouston. "I thought we played very well. They had three power chances and we had none. The guys battled hard, we had a shortened bench (due to injuries)."
Indeed, the additional challenge for Elliott is that the injury bug has suddenly hit the Senators hard.
Mike Fisher, the club's offensive hero during the past couple of weeks, didn't play due to an upper-body injury suffered at practice Tuesday. Chris Neil limped off the ice following a hit by the Devils' Andrew Peters, joining Shean Donovan on the sidelines with a knee injury. Alex Kovalev missed his third consecutive game following his mother-in-law's death and defenceman Anton Volchenkov is still a few days away from returning from a dislocated elbow.
They all hurt, but then again, the Senators also took advantage of injury- depleted lineups for victories against the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins last week.
The Devils have their own injury problems, but their defensive style of game never really changes that much.
In the morning, Devils coach Jacques Lemaire said the Senators were "dangerous" because they boasted three solid scoring lines, but had he waited a few minutes to watch the morning skate, he would have noticed the Senators didn't have their usual assortment of scorers.
Clouston shuffled the deck, hoping for some magic with new combinations. Jason Spezza played alongside Milan Michalek and Ryan Shannon. Daniel Alfredsson was with Nick Foligno and Peter Regin. Ryan Keller, a call-up from Binghamton of the American Hockey League, skated on a unit with Jonathan Cheechoo and Jesse Winchester, while Kelly remained with Ruutu and Neil. Then, the situation got muddy after Neil left the game, forcing more changes.
At least something worked early for the Senators.
Michalek erased the early 1-0 Devils lead with 7:26 left in the first period, deflecting a Winchester shot past Brodeur, wiping out the possibility that Brodeur would tie Sawchuk's shutout mark.
Ottawa Citizen
