Sens ease past slumping Pens

Associated Press

PITTSBURGH

The Ottawa Senators are on such a roll that even one of their most spectacular goals of the season was met with little more than a shoulder shrug.

Milan Michalek scored twice and Jason Spezza undressed Pittsburgh goalie Brent Johnson on a brilliant deke as the Senators thumped the slumping Penguins 5-1 on Tuesday night.

Chris Neil and Bobby Butler also scored for the Senators, while Craig Anderson stopped 29 shots as Ottawa won for the sixth time in seven games.

Anderson was solid but it was Spezza’s goal that highlighted the fortunes of two teams heading in opposite directions.

The forward gave Ottawa a 3-0 lead 2 minutes into the second period on crafty one-man effort in which he used every inch of his 6-foot-3 frame to end Johnson’s night early.

Spezza broke in alone and drew the goalie all the way out of the net with a series of feints. Spezza then skated around the sprawled netminder and appeared to be heading behind the net for a wraparound attempt, only to cut back behind Johnson and clang the puck off the far post.

“I just got [Johnson] to bite on the fake and got around him and just used my reach to kind of tuck it in,” Spezza said.

His teammates were a little more effusive.

“He did some pretty sick moves out there,” said Colin Greening. “He didn’t have much room to move, especially when he deked out Johnson, so he’s got great hands and he showed it tonight.”

Evgeni Malkin scored his 17th goal of the season for Pittsburgh.