Senators Get Back in Series

Yesterday's game 3 of the Finals was unlike any of the other finals games we've seen this year.

Fired up by a Ottawa crowd who was watching their 1st Stanley Cup Final game in 80 years, the Sens looked to get back in the series. But it was the Ducks who scored 1st when Andy McDonald scored for Anaheim. But with 4 minutes left in the 1st, Chris Neil scored to tie it up. The game was tied up at 1 at the end of the 1st. After the teams exchanged goals at the beginning of the 2nd, Anaheim grabbed a 1-goal lead off the stick of Ryan Getzlaf. But the Sens came back scoring goals 2 minutes apart to take the lead. Then, in the 3rd, Anton Volchenkov scored to give the Senators a 2-goal lead. Anaheim wouldn't come back from that as the Senators won game 3 5-3.

This was a very different style of game than what we saw in Anaheim. The goalies didn't play particularly well, and the forwards actually scored! One thing that the teams did have in common from games 1 and 2 was the physical play. The hits kept on coming, and a huge scrum occurred after a questionable hit.

'We can play physical and we can play with the puck,'' said Alfredsson. ''We can handle any situation. It was a character game because we came back a few times.''

Chris Pronger was also heard again as he laid a hard elbow on Dean McCammond in the 3rd. "He's known for that. Hopefully they'll call something on it," Neil said.

"It was an elbow to the head," Murray added. "I don't want to say too much because I'll get accused of complaining."

Randy Carlyle, coach of the Ducks talked about his team's lack of discipline in the 3rd period. "Obviously, the frustration level showed in our group into the third period," Anaheim coach Randy Carlyle said. "But we have to take responsibility for our actions and we played nowhere near our capabilities. And discipline was an issue."

The key to this game was the 5-5 scoring. Coming into this game, all of the Sens goals in the series had come on the powerplay, but scored 4 this game. Ottawa will have to keep it up to tie up the series on Monday

Chris Pronger Cheap shot