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Senators 3, Canucks 1
Associated Press

OTTAWA - The Vancouver Canucks' NHL-record trip got just a little bit longer after Jason Spezza, Brian Elliott and the Ottawa Senators all extended their streaks for the second time in two nights.

Spezza scored his ninth goal in his last eight games and Ottawa extended its team-record winning streak to 11 with a 3-1 victory over the Canucks on Thursday night.

Elliott made 29 saves to break his own team record with his ninth straight win. He lost a shutout bid when Kyle Wellwood scored a power-play goal with 1:39 left.

"Ells has been phenomenal," said Spezza, who extended his official goal streak to six games, tying Dany Heatley's team record. "There's not enough we can say about how well he's played. He just keeps it going and it seems like every night he seems better and better, so it's going well for us."

Milan Michalek had a goal and an assist and Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson had three assists a night after scoring twice in the final minute to lead the Senators to a 4-2 victory in Buffalo.

Spezza, who scored twice against the Sabres, has scored in every game since he returned from a knee injury. He also scored in each of his two games prior to his injury, though that is not officially considered part of his current streak.

"I'm not too worried. I'm just trying to keep scoring," Spezza said. "I'm feeling good about my game right now and just trying to get pucks on net. I can't really worry about what they consider a streak and what they don't - I consider it a streak, in my mind."

Chris Kelly scored into an empty net with 40.5 seconds remaining.

Vancouver, playing the third game of its 14-game trip, lost its second in a row following a seven-game winning streak.

Andrew Raycroft, who recorded his 100th career loss, made 18 saves in his first start in two months. Raycroft had made two relief appearances - including his 99th career win in the Canucks' 5-3 come-from-behind win in Toronto on Saturday night - since allowing four goals in a 5-3 loss at Carolina on Dec. 5.

The Canucks fell to 1-2 on the eight-game first leg of their record road trip while GM Place is being prepared for the Winter Olympics. Vancouver, which plays six straight on the road following the games, does not play at home again until they host the Senators on Mar. 13.

Michalek opened the scoring with a power-play goal 1:34 into the opening period. Alfredsson faked a shot before dishing off to Alex Kovalev, who held the puck before feeding a pass to the slot which Michalek redirected past Raycroft for his 19th of the season.

Ottawa had several more scoring chances throughout the first before Spezza made it a two-goal lead late in the opening period.

Linemates Alfredsson and Michalek drew assists as Spezza drove to the net and slid a shot past Raycroft for his 12th goal.

"We missed two open nets off rebounds," Alfredsson said. "You can't worry about it, but sometimes it does come back and haunt you later in games but Spezza's goal was really big to give us that two-goal cushion and it allowed us to play a little bit more - I won't say defensive - but smarter. We didn't have to force as much or take charge. We let them come and created our chances from turnovers."

Senators defenceman Erik Karlsson left the game late in the second period. He suffered an upper-body injury and did not return.

NOTES: Luongo had made 26 straight starts. He went 17-6-2 over that span ... Elliott won eight in a row last season ... Heatley had three six-game goal streaks with Ottawa ... The Senators next see action on Saturday, facing the Maple Leafs at Air Canada Centre in Toronto (7 p.m., CBC, Team 1200).


Three star selections
1st:   BRIAN ELLIOTT
2nd:   DANIEL ALFREDSSON
3rd:   ANTON VOLCHENKOV
Winning Goaltender
Brian Elliott

Losing Goaltender
Andrew Raycroft

SCHEDULE

HOME
AWAY
PROMOTIONAL

STANDINGS

EASTERN CONFERENCE
  TEAM GP W L OT GF GA PTS
1 z - PIT 48 36 12 0 165 119 72
2 y - MTL 48 29 14 5 149 126 63
3 y - WSH 48 27 18 3 149 130 57
4 x - BOS 48 28 14 6 131 109 62
5 x - TOR 48 26 17 5 145 133 57
6 x - NYR 48 26 18 4 130 112 56
7 x - OTT 48 25 17 6 116 104 56
8 x - NYI 48 24 17 7 139 139 55
9 WPG 48 24 21 3 128 144 51
10 PHI 48 23 22 3 133 141 49
11 NJD 48 19 19 10 112 129 48
12 BUF 48 21 21 6 125 143 48
13 CAR 48 19 25 4 128 160 42
14 TBL 48 18 26 4 148 150 40
15 FLA 48 15 27 6 112 171 36

STATS

2012-2013 PLAYOFFS
SKATERS: GP G A +/- Pts
D. Alfredsson 7 2 5 3 7
K. Turris 7 4 2 1 6
J. Pageau 7 4 2 6 6
E. Condra 7 1 5 1 6
E. Karlsson 7 1 5 2 6
M. Methot 7 1 4 1 5
S. Gonchar 7 0 5 2 5
M. Zibanejad 7 1 3 -1 4
C. Conacher 6 3 0 0 3
J. Silfverberg 7 2 1 -1 3
 
GOALIES: W L OT Sv% GAA
R. Lehner 0 1 0 .952 1.58
C. Anderson 4 2 0 .931 2.52
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