Emery shakes off a rough start to give Senators a lift in goal

Game 3 of the Stanley Cup finals wasn’t even half over and Ottawa’s Ray Emery looked like a defeated goaltender after giving up three goals to the Ducks Saturday night at Scotiabank Place.

But Emery, who gave up four goals in the first two games of the series, didn’t fold and neither did his teammates as the Senators rallied for a 5-3 victory.

“I played the way I wanted to: I played smart,” said Emery, who finished with 19 saves to help Ottawa cut the Ducks’ lead to 2-1 in the best-of-seven series. “I gave up one goal where [Corey Perry] was able to find a hole there. But in the end, I’m just glad that we won.”

A major reason for the Senators’ success in Game 3 was their tenacity. Instead of allowing the Ducks to take the play to them, they took the play to the Ducks.

“We just stuck to our game plan and did not try to worry about our opponent,” forward Mike Comrie said. “Our goal was to create speed through the neutral zone and get the play behind their defensemen. Then we wanted to get chances off the cycle and shoot the puck ... as much as possible” at Ducks goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere.

Ottawa was indeed on the attack in Game 3, forcing Giguere to handle 29 shots. He was able to stop only 24 of those and also had to deal with a couple of bad-bounce goals.

Emery faced 22 shots, and only three of those came in the third period.

“We really had the same game plan that we did for the first two games but we just did a great job of executing today,” he said.

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After being outhit by the Ducks in the first two games, the Senators took things into their own hands and delivered their own style of punishment in Game 3.

Led by forwards Chris Neil and Mike Fisher, who each had a team-high five hits, Ottawa won physical battles all over the ice, outhitting the Ducks, 32-26.

Neil, who became a first-time father after his wife, Caitlin, gave birth late Friday night to a girl, Hailey Jean, inspired his teammates not only with his hitting but also his offense, scoring the Senators’ first goal.

“He used some of that baby energy tonight,” Ottawa forward Jason Spezza said. “You can tell that he was pumped up. For him to get that goal going to the net -- that was big. He was a menace all night, getting under their skin, running around hitting guys. When Neil does that, it gives us a lot of emotion.”

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Ducks winger Chris Kunitz, who had not played since he broke his right hand in the first game of the Western Conference finals, returned to the lineup and gave his team a spark in the first period.

He first drew a penalty on Neil and then his tough play along the boards helped set up a power-play goal by Andy McDonald. But Kunitz lasted only until early in the second period before leaving the game for good, forcing the Ducks to use 11 forwards after that.

“It’s frustrating that it’s something else,” said Kunitz, who played 4 minutes and 13 seconds. “I aggravated something while we’ve been working so hard to get back. I don’t want to be rude and comment on it because it’s the finals.

“I went to throw a body-check and something happened,” Kunitz added. “Yeah, I felt good. Things were going OK obviously. The hand felt great. I had no problems with my hand. It was feeling good. I had a couple of hits. Got in physical early and it held up fine.”

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Ducks Coach Randy Carlyle on losing for the first time in the finals: “When you win the game like they did, they are going to feel good about themselves because they came in and outworked us. You have to give their team credit. And I know that we can play to a higher level than which we played tonight. And I expect us to regroup, refocus, make some adjustments and go forward.”

lonnie.white@latimes.com