Jason Spezza has Big Night

A huge collective sigh of relief was felt among Ottawa Senators fans on Thursday night after their star forward Jason Spezza finally scored his first goal of the season. Coming off three consecutive thirty goal seasons Spezza admitted to feeling a bit of pressure at going so long without a goal. “I felt pretty good about my game going into tonight and I just wasn’t getting many bounces,” said Spezza who had three points in leading the Senators to a 3-2 overtime win against the Tampa Bay Lightning. “It’s nice to get one, though, to get the monkey off a little bit.” Spezza who scored the overtime winner and now has 11 points in 11 games received some strong praise from his goaltender Pascal Leclaire who also had a strong game in making 18 saves. “He’s a big part of our team,” Leclaire said. “He’s a presence. When he has the puck he can do so many things. He makes the defence back up a little bit and keeps them thinking so obviously you want him on your team and he played great tonight.” With the win Ottawa who improves on the season to 7-4-2 has beaten Tampa Bay twice already this year and sit comfortably in sixth in the Eastern Conference with 16 points. Besides for Spezza’s first goal another huge highlight for Sens fans was the big hit that forward Chris Neil laid on Bolts rookie defenceman Victor Hedman. “It was a good hit,” Lightning coach Rick Tocchett said. ‘‘The puck was there. There was nothing wrong with that hit. That`s hockey.” This game marked the third meeting between these two teams in the last three weeks