MadFerret

Sports Ticker
3/16/2004

ST. PAUL, Minnesota (Ticker) -- The Ottawa Senators can clinch their eighth straight playoff berth Tuesday night when they face the Minnesota Wild in the finale of a five-game road trip.

With 90 points, Ottawa is in fourth place in the Eastern Conference. The Senators are two ahead of Toronto and two behind Boston for first place in the Northeast Division.

Ottawa is 2-2-0 on its road trip and 3-4-0 in its last seven contests.

On Sunday, the Senators fell to 16-13-4-1 on the road with a 3-1 loss at Edmonton. Goaltender Martin Prusek was sharp for 30 minutes but got beat overplaying a backhander by Radek Dvorak, allowed a costly rebound on Ethan Moreau's goal and then let a bad-angle shot by Raffi Torres trickle through his pads.

Prusek lasted just 40 minutes before coach Jacques Martin revealed he had a sore back.

Minnesota is 11th in the West and is 11 points behind Nashville and Los Angeles.

On Sunday, the Wild extended their unbeaten streak to five games (2-0-3) by rallying for a 3-2 victory. Former Senator Alexandre Daigle completed the comeback by scoring 2:43 into the third period.

Ottawa is 2-1-1 all time vs. Minnesota. Minnesota's only win in the series was a 3-0 blanking at the Corel Centre on February 25, 2003 when Dwayne Roloson made 28 saves and Marian Gaborik scored.

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Man.Utd (SENS#1)

I think I'll just inform the people now- Alife is a question for tonight. He and Smolinski crashed into each other in practice and Alfreddson was left with a minor leg contusion. If he fails to be back tonight (it's about 50-50), he'll definatly be back against Colorado on Thursday- the team's 3rd last home game of the season. Alfredsson will take the pre-game skate and see how he feels.

Now in regards to the game, Ottawa needs to work hard. Minnesota is a defensive minded team and in order to beat their system we need speed. We have speed, but we gotta use it, we didn't take advantage of it in Edmonton and lost. Minny won't beat themselves, so even if we let in a few goals early we have to keep our head up. The team is in a funk right now and possibly losing Alfie certainly won't help. This'll be a big test for the entire roster.

Hopefully we can score first again- only this time let's keep the lead! k: This will more than likely be a tight-checking game with scoring chances being few and far between. Ottawa needs to take advantage of all their opportunities and I think they can. 3-2 Ottawa in OT, we need this win to stay in the battle for the North East Division. Hopefully we can get two points while Toronto and Boston tie. The trouble with them going to OT tough is that they both get a point :( Montreal plays Colorado tonight so the other teams could help us out a bit.

bluemeanie

You know... the guys down in Boston, and some of us up here in Toronto were talking about it... and well, we've decided to give any points that either of us collect tonight to Ottawa. Just a little sign of friendship and generosity.

Cheers. =]

Craven Morehead

A big 2 points for sure. Losing 4 points to teams that just wanted it more in unacceptable. Our schedule becomes insane after tonight's game with contests against the Avalanche(home), Bruins, Lightning, Leafs, Flyers, Habs, Leafs (home). There are a couple weaker teams in there as well. But this game is big tonight.

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grim

Blue that is soooo %$#@&%$ nice of you. We'll definitely try to repay the favour. :]

Man.Utd (SENS#1)

Yeah they're all gonna be hard from here on in. It's tough, but if we can get on a roll we'll be taking full points off alot of solid teams Let's hope......

bluemeanie

Hee hee... the kitty cat has a funny tongue.

grim

PUMBA?!! PUUUUUMBA!!?!! Where the hell did that Pumba get to? He's missing lunch!

Max Power

Yah with Min league leading 20 tie games and that's not including OTL or OTW it's not a bad call. Sens will come out strong after that lackluster performance on Sunday. I’ll go with a bold call of 4-1 OTT. k:

As far as the TO/BOS game tie would be nice but if not a TO win would be my preference. At this point I don’t care who wins the east or the northeast between OTT or TO… As long as it’s not Boston. I don’t want to see two Canadian teams face off in the first round. It would be nice if OTT and TO finished 3rd and 4th. This way you can almost bet that they’d meet in the conference finals providing they can both make it that far

Man.Utd (SENS#1)

To be honest, I wouldn't mind seeing every Canadian team bow out early (aside from Ottawa). Do I wish them ill? No, if they put on a good run- great! But if they exit early, it's one less team I have to worry about. I'm one of the few who doesn't buy this "Cup to Canada" thing. There is only ONE team I want to win the cup and that's Ottawa. If they're out I just become neutral and enjoy some good hockey games.

I like Montreal aswell only because I supported them until we got our own team.