Senators-Penguins: Ottawa Takes Rematch, Three of Four Points on Opening Weekend

The Ottawa Senators were victorious in their second meeting with the Pittsburgh Penguins in as many days, taking the game 3-1.

Dany Heatley scored two goals, giving him a total of three on the weekend.

The first period was a defensive battle.  There were no goals scored, and very few scoring chances. It took a five-on-four power play past the halfway point of the second for a goal to be scored. Heatley took a pass from linemate Jason Spezza, and let a wrist-shot go right to the back of the net.

Heatley once again tallied on the power play in the third, as he fired a bullet through goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury from the high slot. The Sens capped the game off on a great second-effort from Antoine Vermette, who jammed the puck into the net after being held up on a breakaway attempt by Kris Letang.

The Penguins scored their only goal of the game at 19:59 of the third period, as Alex Goligoski took a feed from captain Sidney Crosby and spoiled Alex Auld's shutout bid.

Game Notes

It has only been two games, but the Senators have formed an identity—one that will be brand new to all fans. This is a team that will have to work hard to win and not depend on skill alone.

More grit and less flash could spell boring hockey occasionally, but this team proves to stack up against the best in the conference. Coach Craig Hartsburg and GM Bryan Murray have their fingerprints all over this year's Senators, and they will be a hard team to play against.

Auld played tremendously in net for the Senators. Facing a high-powered Penguins offense fronted by Crosby and Evgeni Malkin didn't affect Auld one bit, as he was a second away from a shutout in his first game as a Senator. Hartsburg will have a lot to think about as to who will start on Saturday night, when the Sens host the Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings.

Dany Heatley was named the game's first star, primarily because he scored two goals. What stat sheets won't tell you is that he played a solid two-way game—especially in the third period, when he turned it up a notch and started blocking shots. At this pace, he'll score 123 goals this year—but we won't start that debate just yet.

The two players the Senators received in the trade for Andrej Meszaros played great on the back end. Alexandre Picard has begun to bear down, and Filip Kuba picked up another two assists—four on the season—and was a plus-one. Kuba averaged approximately 27 minutes of ice time over the two game series, which led the team.

The Senators' penalty killing was very effective in Stockholm. Kuba, Jason Smith, Chris Phillips, and Anton Volchenkov all spent plenty of time on the PK, while forward-pairings of Chris Kelly-Vermette and Daniel Alfredsson-Jarkko Ruutu usually hit the ice for the Sens.

Ottawa scored three power-play goals over the two games. Every one of them belonged to Dany Heatley.

The Penguins went 1-for-14 on the man-advantage throughout the weekend. Alex Goligoski is a decent replacement—but if the Penguins are going to be without Sergei Gonchar and Ryan Whitney for a long period of time, their power play will struggle.