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UNIONDALE, New York (Ticker) -- Martin Prusek has played just two NHL games, but he's already an old hand when it comes to penalty shots. Prusek stopped Dave Scatchard on a penalty shot among 29 saves for his first NHL win as the Ottawa Senators continued their mastery of the New York Islanders with a 5-3 victory. Making his first NHL start, Prusek denied Scatchard at 2:01 of the third period. The 26-year-old Czech replaced Patrick Lalime to start the second period in Saturday's 7-1 loss at Boston and also stopped Glen Murray on a penalty shot. "In Czech hockey, they play a lot of penalty shots after practice, so it's not a big deal," Prusek said through an interpreter. "It helps my confidence, for sure. I felt more comfortable at the end of the game. At the end, they had the momentum and that was the most difficult part of the game." "It's nice to see him get a win under his belt," Senators coach Jacques Martin added. "It was a solid effort for his first game. He gave us a good performance and made some big saves. Martin Prusek is still learning the game." Former Islander defenseman Zdeno Chara scored his first two goals of the season, including an empty-net tally from his own zone in the final second. He opened the scoring on the power play 5:48 into first period when he beat Chris Osgood from the left faceoff circle. "The puck just came back to me and I reacted," Chara said. "But it's not just me. Everybody played well. We were struggling a little bit coming in here. When you play against a team like that, you just can't worry about (Alexei) Yashin. But anytime you give only two shots instead of five, six or seven shots, you have an advantage." Just over two minutes later, Chara set up another power-play goal. He got the puck to Daniel Alfredsson, whose slap shot from the point was deflected by Todd White. Ottawa boasts the NHL's second-best power play and has scored at least one goal with the extra man in each of the last 12 games. The Islanders, meanwhile, have the league's worst penalty-killing unit. Peter Schaefer made it 3-0 with his first goal for Ottawa 1:58 into the second period after Osgood lost control of the puck and the Islanders failed to clear the zone. Defenseman Adrian Aucoin fired a one-timer through traffic that beat Prusek at 10:45 for the Isles' team-leading third power-play goal. "Ottawa is a solid team," Aucoin said. "They match up well with us. Tonight, it was a matter of coming back from two large deficits against a good team." Aucoin scored after Scatchard - playing his 400th NHL game - had a goal waved off for using a high stick to put the puck past Prusek. Shaun Van Allen restored Ottawa's three-goal advantage at 5:23 of the final period. "Up 3-0, we knew we were in for a battle," Van Allen said. "They showed that kind of character last year. They turned it up a notch. When we got the first two power plays, we got them on their heels a bit." Arron Asham and rookie Eric Manlow got the Islanders back in the game with their second goals of the season, scoring 2:08 apart. Manlow was credited with the Islanders' third goal, although replays appeared to show the puck bounced off the left goalpost. "We just didn't seem to be mentally ready," Asham said. "We came back from a bad start in the first period, but the hole was too deep." New York could not produce a tying goal and fell to 0-11-3 in their last 14 home games against Ottawa. The Islanders have not beaten the Senators at the Nassau Coliseum since January 6, 1996. "This a great old rink," Van Allen said. "I love this rink. At least here you look up and see all those retired jerseys. I think Marty stopping the penalty shot gave him a lot of confidence and also built up our confidence." The Islanders open a five-game road trip Thursday at red-hot Boston and host Ottawa again on November 27. "This was disappointing because it was the last game of a home stand," New York coach Peter Laviolette said. "We put ourselves behind the eight-ball." |
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