Ottawa Senators goaltender Craig Anderson was just glad to be back around his teammates and to pick up a win. That it was a shutout was icing on the cake.
Anderson made his first start in 69 days and turned aside 33 shots as the Ottawa Senators beat the New York Islanders 3-0 on Saturday.
Anderson left the club in early December last year to be with his wife, Nicholle, who is battling cancer and he returned to practice last week.
Photo: AP
“It felt great. Got two points, got the win,” Anderson said. “I think it was an exciting day for myself to get back in the net, and just be there for the guys and feel that camaraderie.”
The shutout was the fourth of the season for Anderson in just 20 games and the eighth of the season for the Senators. Mike Condon has the other four.
The win was the second straight for the Senators.
“I got a little luck and we got a little luck at the other end,” Anderson said. “It’s one of those nights where fate was in our favor.”
Mark Stone, Zack Smith and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored for the Senators (29-18-6), who now have six goals in their past two games after being outscored 10-0 in the previous two.
Thomas Greiss made 21 saves for the Islanders (24-19-10) in his eighth start in the past nine games. It was just the second regulation loss for the Islanders in their past 12 games.
“You have games like that, but give credit to their goaltender. We probably could have done a better job getting more pucks toward the net, but I think there’s a lot of things that we liked about our game,” Islanders forward Andrew Ladd said.
Stone opened the scoring at 4 minutes, 10 seconds of the first period, before Smith gave the Senators a 2-0 lead at 4:35 of the second.
A little less than three minutes later, Pageau put the Senators up 3-0 when he redirected a pass from Tom Pyatt past Greiss at 7:12.
“It was a great pass from Pyatt,” Paguea said.
“In the defensive zone we wanted to cut off their play and break out on the attack, and that’s what Pyatt did and then he put the puck right on my stick,” he said.
Paguea also gave credit to Anderson.
“He’s been there for us since the beginning and he’s a competitor. He’s there every shift and he gave us the big saves when we needed them, and we tried to make life easier for him out there,” Paguea said. “When your goaltender comes back after a long break, you want to go and be solid in front of him. I think the guys did that.”
The Islanders had two power plays in the second period and outshot the Senators 14-5 in the middle frame, but they were unable to get anything past Anderson.
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