The Senators put in a little over 20 minutes of serious hockey. Thankfullly, it was good enough to overcome the Islanders and grasp a victory from the jaws of defeat.



In a match that wasn't televised (but which I managed to see anyway), the Senators got on the board early, and seemed complacent once they had the one goal lead. They allowed the Islanders to get back into the game with three - count 'em, three - unanswered goals. The Sens spent most of the late half of the first period and all of the second period in their own zone, trying to fend off Isles pressure and failing dismally.

I'm not sure what kind of talk coach Cory Clouston gave them between periods, but the Senators came out aces in the third, thanks mostly to a high-flying Alex Kovalev. Man, that guy can fly when he turns it on. One goal and two assists in the third, and he was all over the ice and pouring on the speed like he can when he wants to. Brian Elliott came up large on quite a few occasions and it was strange to see him sprawl. Usually so controlled and positionally conscious, Elliott had to dive for a few because of bad plays in front of him.

Surprisingly, captain Daniel Alfredsson had one of his rare bad games. Although he did contribute to the scoring, he was stripped of the puck way too many times and made some serious mistakes that led to breakaways which left Elliott holding the bucket. Filip Kuba was another who had some not-so-stellar moments and Isles' goals could be linked directly to his being side-stepped and overtaken. Bingo call-up Derek Smith also had a few boner moves, but I'll still give him the benefit of the doubt seeing how new he is to the bigs.

We now turn our sites to Olympic hockey for the next two weeks. I'm glad the Sens managed to enter the break on a high note.