Ottawa Banks on Prusek

Mighty Duck goalie Martin Gerber did his part, stopping just about everything thrown at him Thursday.

Trouble was, the Ducks could do little against Ottawa goalie Martin Prusek.

Prusek was almost impenetrable in a 3-1 victory in front of 18,034 at the Corel Center, ending the Ducks’ three-game winning streak and making another case for the Senators being the best team money can buy ... if there is any money left in the Ottawa organization.

This is certainly the best team bankruptcy attorneys have ever dissected, after the Senators were granted court protection a week ago.

That has had little effect on the Senators. They got two goals from Marian Hossa, one a deflection off the skate of Duck defenseman Ruslan Salei, and an empty-net goal from Daniel Alfredsson to clinch the win. Ottawa has won four consecutive games since the bankruptcy was announced.

“As for the players, that is nothing they have to think about,” Salei said. “They are not going to be out on the street. They are still going to have a team, whether it’s in this city or someplace else. They can go about their business of trying to win the Stanley Cup.”

Business is good for the Senators, who are indeed Stanley Cup contenders, even if their fans are worried that the victory parade will be held on moving vans headed out of town.

The Senators have 64 points, the most in the NHL. A big reason is depth.

Goalie Patrick Lalime has three consecutive shutouts. Yet there was little drop-off when he took a night off. Prusek stopped 23 of 24 shots, allowing only Stanislav Chistov’s power-play goal 14 minutes 19 seconds into the third period, to improve his record to 8-0.

The line of Paul Kariya, Adam Oates and Petr Sykora had several chances, but no goals. Their best chance came when Kariya split the defense and came in alone early in the second period, but his backhand try was denied.

Prusek spread the frustration around. Late in the third period, Alexei Smirnov appeared to have a sure goal, with Prusek sprawled in the crease, but the goalie managed to get his stick on the shot.

“He has a lot of Dominik Hasek in him,” Kariya said. “He seems a little bit all over the place, but he covers the bottom really well. That’s what Dominik did in his prime.

“That shows how much talent they have. They sit a guy who has three consecutive shutouts and the other guy can play like that. Our guys were shaking their heads about that.”

Gerber nearly matched Prusek, both in quality and number. He stopped 23 of 25 shots and was not to blame for either goal. He has allowed five goals in his last four starts and has an 0-3-1 record to show for it.

The Ducks, playing their second game in as many nights, got off to a sluggish start, but the game was scoreless until a kind bounce gave Ottawa the lead.

Hossa set up to the left of Gerber and tried to slide a pass across the crease to Martin Havlat. Salei had good position on Havlat, but never saw the puck until it had bounced off his skate and into the net for a 1-0 Senator lead 15:07 into the first period.

Hossa, who has 30 goals, applied some pressure in the second period.

He was lurking at the blue line and was in perfect position to intercept Jason Krog’s clearing attempt. Hossa pulled up and fired a shot past Gerber, and Ottawa led, 2-0, 4:37 into the third period.