OTTAWA — Goalie Craig Anderson’s standout performance helped the Ottawa Senators beat the Boston Bruins 3-1 Sunday at Canadian Tire Centre.
Anderson made 38 saves as Ottawa snapped its two-game losing streak and extended Boston’s slump to three games.
Winger Mark Stone scored twice and center Mika Zibanejad had the other goal for the Senators (18-12-6), as they pulled even with the Bruins (19-12-4) in the Atlantic Division standings.
Center David Krejci scored the lone Boston goal but left the game at the end of the second period with an undisclosed injury. Goalie Tuukka Rask stopped 20 shots in the Bruins net.
Stone’s second goal of the night was scored on a backhand from center ice with 53 seconds left, as Rask was on the bench for an extra attacker.
The Senators took a 2-1 lead into the final 20 minutes of regulation time after the teams each scored once in the second period.
Krejci tied the game with his 11th goal of the season at the 7:54 mark, stepping out from behind the goal line and making a nice move to kick the puck to his stick before taking a short shot low on Anderson’s glove side. While the referee standing behind the net ruled it was a save, the call was overturned after a lengthy review. The goal was Krejci’s second in two games.
The Senators got that one back at 18:21 of the second on a play that was started on a nice move by winger Mike Hoffman in the neutral zone. After carrying the puck across the blue line, Hoffman passed off to his right, and winger Bobby Ryan then charged to the net. Ryan put his shot where he had to put it, off the right pad of Rask, and the rebound came out to Zibanejad, who had a wide open cage before him. The goal was Zibanejad’s sixth of the season and first in five games.
While Anderson stopped all 16 shots he faced in the first period, the Senators went into the intermission with a 1-0 lead on Stone’s power-play goal with 18.9 seconds left on the clock.
Standing behind the Boston net, Stone bounced a shot in off the right skate of Bruins defenseman Dennis Seidenberg, who was located directly in front of Rask.
The goal, Stone’s second in two games, snapped a streak of 26 consecutive penalty kills by the Bruins.
The teams meet again Tuesday night in Boston.
On Saturday night, former Boston University star Jack Eichel scored twice and set up another goal in a five-goal barrage in the final 9:39, finishing with four points as the Buffalo Sabres stormed from behind to a 6-3 victory over the Bruins.
Eichel tied the game 3-3 with nine minutes left and then scored from his own end into an empty net for his first two-goal game in the NHL. The rookie center then assisted on center Ryan O’Reilly’s empty netter.
Eichel snapped a seven-game goal-less streak as the Sabres improved to 4-1-1 in their last six games (15-16-4 overall).
Left wingers Evander Kane and Jamie McGinn scored the other goals and O’Reilly and McGinn both had an assist in front of former Bruins goaltender Chad Johnson, who made 30 saves. He is 10-9-2 on the season.
Left winger Matt Beleskey and centers Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci scored for the Bruins.
The Bruins, who went ahead 2-1 on two goals in 1:16 in the second took a 3-1 lead, when Krejci batted his own second rebound out of mid-air at 6:59 of the third period.
The visitors then took over, bombarding losing goalie Jonas Gustavsson, who made 23 saves.
First, defenseman Mike Weber intentionally shot wide of the Boston net, the puck coming out to O’Reilly, who scored at 10:21.
Then, just 39 seconds later, Eichel, who assisted on the first Buffalo goal, took a pass from defenseman Jake McCabe, walked in and, with linemate Kane dumped into the crease by defenseman Kevan Miller, banked one off Miller to tie the game.
The Sabres took the lead when O’Reilly got the puck from behind the net to McGinn, who beat Gustavsson with a backhander from in tight. The empty netters ended the game and sent the Bruins off the ice to the boos of the home crowd.