The Ottawa Senators kept Buffalo from clinching a playoff berth by recording their ninth consecutive win over the Sabres, a 4-2 triumph, on Friday.
Netminder Brian Elliott had 41 saves as Ottawa won their third in a row to snap Buffalo’s four-game winning streak.
“We’re getting the save when we need it,” Senators coach Cory Clouston told reporters after Elliott improved to 8-0-0 against the Sabres.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“Sometimes you get the bounces,” Elliott said. “Right at the end, they took a shot and instead of me stopping it, it deflected off their stick and went wide.”
Buffalo’s Tomas Vanek also missed a chance to tie the score midway through the third when his slapshot hit the post.
Ottawa had lost five in a row before their current streak, which includes Elliott’s shutouts of Montreal and Philadelphia.
“We’re getting the timely goals,” Clouston said. “We’re doing a lot of little things well and I think our focus is probably a little bit better, too.”
Five of the Ottawa wins over Buffalo have come this season.
Chris Kelly, Peter Regin, Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson each had goals for Ottawa, who trail Buffalo by five points in the Northeast Division.
The Senators scored the game’s first two goals on shots by Kelly in the first and Regin in the second before the Sabres pulled one back when an intended Buffalo pass deflected off Tim Kennedy’s skate into the net midway the second.
Spezza re-established the Senators’ two-goal lead on a power play with six minutes to go in the second.
Jason Pominville’s 22nd goal of the season brought the Sabres back within one early in the second period, but Ottawa sealed the win on Alfredsson’s empty netter with a second to play.
RED WINGS 6, WILD 2
At Detroit, Johan Franzen had two goals and two assists for his first career four-point game in the Detroit Red Wings’ 6-2 victory over Minnesota on Friday night.
Pavel Datsyuk, Tomas Holmstrom and Jonathan Ericsson each had a goal and an assist, Drew Miller also scored and Jimmy Howard made 25 saves to help the Red Wings run their winning streak to a season-high four games.
The Red Wings are equal with Colorado on 89 points for the last two playoff spots in the Western Conference, six points ahead of ninth-place Calgary.
Andrew Brunette and Owen Nolan scored for Minnesota.
DUCKS 3, OILERS 2
At Edmonton, Corey Perry scored two power-play goals in a one minute, 35 seconds span in the third period, and Curtis McElhinney made 34 saves in Anaheim’s win.
Perry gave the Oilers the lead with seven minutes, 30 seconds left and then added his 26th goal of the season with 6:55 remaining. Teemu Selanne assisted on both goals.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but