Iginla scores twice, Avalanche beat Senators 4-3
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) - The Colorado Avalanche solidified their standing on the playoff bubble. The Ottawa Senators fell even further behind in a crowded pack.
Jarome Iginla had two goals on the power play and an assist, Blake Comeau had a goal and an assist and the Avalanche beat the Senators 4-3 on Thursday night to end a four-game losing streak.
Nathan MacKinnon also scored for the Avalanche, and Carl Soderberg and Tyson Barrie each had two assists. Semyon Varlamov made 26 saves to help Colorado stay in position for the first of two wild-card spots in the Western Conference.
Mark Stone and Mike Hoffman scored in the second period to cut Colorado's lead to 3-2. After Comeau had an empty-netter with 1:04 left in the third, Chris Neil scored with 26 seconds remaining, but Ottawa couldn't complete the comeback. Andrew Hammond made 23 saves for the Senators.
Iginla has 15 goals this season and has scored at least that many in 17 of his 20 NHL seasons. He has 604 goals and 1,257 points.
"Ottawa had some momentum going into the third so to be able to hold them off was big," Iginla said. "They've got some good offense on their side."
Dion Phaneuf had two assists in his first home game with Ottawa and received two loud ovations during the game.
"That was nice, and that was an extremely classy move by the fans to welcome me to Ottawa. I felt it and I appreciate it," said Phaneuf, who was acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday and made his Senators' debut Wednesday in Detroit.
Ottawa has lost two straight and is five points out of a playoff spot with five teams ahead of it.
The first five goals came with the man advantage.
Iginla scored first when he put the puck past Hammond at 9:16 of the opening period. Hammond nearly made a spectacular arm save from his stomach on Iginla's shot, but the puck barely made its way across the goal line.
MacKinnon scored at 2:26 of the second period and Iginla scored again at 6:54.
MacKinnon scored on the rush, beating Hammond with a rising shot from the slot. Iginla followed that with a one-timer from the faceoff circle off a pass from Barrie, just 15 seconds after Erik Karlsson was sent off for interference.
The Senators rebounded to score a pair of power-play goals before the second period finished.
Karlsson and Phaneuf made a couple of passes along the blue line before Phaneuf's point shot was tipped in by Stone at 11:15, just 10 seconds after Cody McLeod was penalized for holding. Phaneuf's assist was his first point in a Senators uniform since he was traded from the Maple Leafs on Monday.
Karlsson and Phaneuf assisted again on Hoffman's one-timer past Varlamov at 19:52.
"It's tough being down 3-0 and it's a hard hole to climb out of, but I thought we did a good job sticking with it," Neil said. "These are points that we need. We've got to win games."
This was the first of three games in four days for the Avalanche, and coach Patrick Roy intentionally spaced out playing time as evenly as he could - every forward got between 10 and 20 minutes of ice time.
"I thought it was important to play four lines ?and that's what we did," coach Patrick Roy said. "Everybody played pretty much the same and we didn't have anyone under 10 minutes as far as the forwards. I thought it was the best way for us to play that game because they're a team with four good lines as well."
NOTES: Defenseman Chris Wideman was the lone scratch for the Senators while defensemen Nate Guenin and Zach Redmond were scratches for the Avalanche. ... Karlsson's two assists pulled him within four assists of tying Alexie Yashin for fourth place on the Senators career list. ... Ottawa plays the Blue Jackets in Columbus on Saturday night. The Avalanche visit Detroit on Friday night.