Senators Rally for Tie, Stay Close to Devils

After blowing three leads, the Ottawa Senators managed to make a comeback of their own.

Rob Zamuner scored an unassisted goal with 11:46 remaining in the third period, lifting the Senators to a 4-4 tie with the New Jersey Devils at Ottawa on Thursday night.

Zamuner intercepted Scott Stevens’ cross-ice pass in the New Jersey zone and fired a shot past goalie Martin Brodeur to keep Ottawa within one point of the Eastern Conference-leading Devils.

Daniel Alfredsson, Alexei Yashin and Shawn McEachern scored for the Senators, who had three separate one-goal leads before Petr Sykora gave the Devils their first lead of the game.

“Both teams obviously really wanted to win this game,” Ottawa captain Alfredsson said. “It wasn’t like either team waited for the other to do something. Both teams took charge and I think that’s why there were so many turnovers.”

Sykora broke a 3-3 tie 1:34 into the third period as he intercepted Magnus Arvedsson’s pass in the Devils’ zone and sped down the ice to beat goalie Patrick Lalime.

“Turnovers are caused when you’re not given much time,” New Jersey Coach Larry Robinson said. “We certainly knew we didn’t want to give them any time with the puck, and that’s probably vice versa. I know I talked about it, because they’ve got a lot of very, very skilled forwards out there and you can’t give them time to make the plays.”

Sykora scored for the fifth consecutive game, extending his point-scoring streak to a career-best nine games.

Alexander Mogilny scored twice for the second consecutive game and Scott Gomez got his ninth of the season for the Devils, who shut out Montreal, 4-0, two nights earlier to begin a four-game road trip.

Detroit 2, Toronto 1--Darren McCarty had a goal and an assist, leading the Red Wings to a victory over the Maple Leafs at Detroit.

Kirk Maltby put Detroit up 1-0 when he crashed the net and scooped up a rebound, beating goaltender Curtis Joseph in the first period. It was Maltby’s first goal since Jan. 9, a nine-game drought.

Nashville 3, Columbus 1--David Legwand scored two power-play goals in the second period at Nashville, Tenn., leading the Predators to their fourth consecutive victory.

Nashville, which has never made the playoffs, moved within two points of eighth-place Edmonton in the Western Conference. The Predators reached the .500 mark at 24-24-7-2.

St. Louis 4, Tampa Bay 1--Pavol Demitra scored his first goal in three games for the Blues since returning from an eye injury and added an assist at St. Louis.

Ladislav Nagy and Alexander Khavanov each had a goal and two assists for St. Louis, which is one point behind Colorado for first place overall. Backup goalie Brent Johnson started his second consecutive game with Roman Turek suffering from tendinitis in his left elbow and raised his record to 17-4-1.

San Jose 0, Vancouver 0--Steve Shields and Bob Essensa were both perfect as the Sharks and Canucks played to a scoreless tie at Vancouver, Canada.

Shields finished with 26 saves and Essensa stopped 31 shots as the teams skated to the first scoreless draw in Vancouver. It was the Canucks’ first since a 0-0 tie in San Jose on Dec. 18, 1997. It was the Sharks’ first scoreless game since Jan. 19, 2000, in Colorado.