Bruins 7, Senators 2

OTTAWA (AP) -The Boston Bruins' offensive stars came through, making their big defenseman a winner in his return to Ottawa.

Marco Sturm scored three times and Marc Savard had two goals and two assists, leading Boston to a 7-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night.

Patrice Bergeron had five assists, and Glen Murray and Paul Mara also scored to help captain Zdeno Chara win his first game in Ottawa since leaving the Senators last offseason for a five-year, $37.5 million contract.

Chara, booed every time he touched the puck, assisted on Savard's first goal - the Bruins' first of three on the power play - late in the first to put Boston up 3-0.

"Anytime they took a penalty, we capitalized," Chara said. "It was a great team effort. We played really hard for 60 minutes and it was great to play the game."

Christoph Schubert scored Ottawa's first goal at 19:55 of the second - with the Senators already trailing 5-0. Antoine Vermette added a 4-on-4 goal midway through the third.

Boston has won all three meetings between the Northeast Division rivals this season. The last-place Bruins, who lost 6-3 to New Jersey on Saturday, have won two of three and are one point behind the fourth-place Senators.

Ottawa, which returned from a 2-2 road trip, fell to 6-8-0 at Scotiabank Place this season.

"We didn't know how to play defense at all," Senators coach Bryan Murray said. "In the first period we gave up more odd-man rushes than we did on the entire road trip."

Senators center Patrick Eaves was assessed an elbowing major and a game misconduct 10:08 into the third for his hit on Savard behind the Bruins net. Savard, who leads the Bruins with 30 assists and 41 points, was helped to his bench after he lay on the ice following the hit, but remained in the game.

"That's the stuff in hockey we're trying to clean up," Savard said. "It's unnecessary."

Sturm finished with his second career hat trick. He opened the scoring 9:39 in before adding two more goals in the second.

Murray made it 2-0 at 10:44 of the first with his team-leading 17th goal on a setup from Savard.

Savard's power-play goal late in the opening period put Boston up 3-0.

"We came out really strong and obviously when you get the lead early in the game, you control the tempo of the game," Chara said.

Sturm got his second of the game at the 10:00 mark of the second on another Bruins power play following a skirmish in front of Ottawa's bench involving Boston's Wayne Primean and Senators enforcer Brian McGrattan.

The players were each given roughing minors and 10-minute misconducts at 9:34 of the second after all the skaters from both teams squared off along the boards when Primeau and Mara went after McGrattan after he high-sticked Primeau from behind.

"It doesn't make any sense," said Primeau, whose brother Keith retired earlier this season, unable to return to Philadelphia's lineup following successive concussions. "We all know he's their tough guy and he doesn't have to do things like that to show me he's tough. It's fine finishing checks and stuff, but when you headhunt like that, I don't know, I lost a lot of respect for him with that."

Sturm got his third goal at 15:32 to increase Boston's lead to 5-0.

Ray Emery stopped 15 of 20 shots in two periods. Martin Gerber replaced him for the third with Ottawa trailing 5-1.

"We haven't really played that much at home but we've struggled home and away, on and off, this year and tonight was a tough one for us," Emery said. "We wanted to battle, we wanted to come out hard and they got a couple of chances early on and buried them, and anytime you play from behind like that, it's tough."

Notes: Sturm's first hat trick came on Dec. 23, 1998, with San Jose at Edmonton. He enjoyed pointing out that it came at the expense of current Bruins goalie coach Bob Essensa. ... Bergeron had never had more than two assists in a game. ... Ken Hodge and Bobby Orr hold the Bruins record of six assists in a game. ... Senators D Wade Redden missed his ninth game in a row because of a chest injury. Redden, who had a groin injury earlier this season, has been limited to 18 games so far. ... The Senators began a stretch with 15 of 20 games at home.