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 Playing in his third NHL game, the Ottawa native scored his first
goal at 3:59 of the extra session to give the Senators a 3-2 win
over the St. Louis Blues on Monday at Canadian Tire Centre.
Such heroics are becoming common for the 19-year-old, who was a
first-round draft pick in 2012. Before his recall last week, Ceci
had two goals in 24 games for the AHL's Binghamton Senators, both
overtime winners.
"Words can't describe how happy I am right now," said Ceci, whose
seeing-eye wrist shot from the point beat Blues goalie Brian
Elliott. "To have that goal go in, in overtime ... to win the game
against a great team with all my family and friends in the building,
it's pretty crazy.
"It was a great feeling playing my first game (Thursday), and this
one tops that."
Winger Bobby Ryan had a goal and an assist for the Senators, who
trailed 2-1 after two periods. Center Jean-Gabriel Pageau also
scored for Ottawa (14-15-6).
Winger Chris Stewart scored both goals for St. Louis (22-6-4).
"We were a little sloppy to give up that lead," said Blues winger
Alex Steen, whose team is now 14-0-2 when taking a lead into the
third. "We'll look at it really quickly, but we've got to let it go.
We got a point. Now we've got to go home, play San Jose (on Tuesday)
and get two (points) there."
Senators goalie Robin Lehner made 30 saves, while Elliott kicked out
29 shots.
The Senators had a chance to wrap things up earlier in overtime when
Blues winger Derek Roy took a hooking penalty, but defenseman Alex
Pietrangelo blocked shots by Senators center Jason Spezza and winger
Mika Zibanejad to keep his team alive.
Stewart scored goals 2:57 apart late in the second period to give
the Blues a 2-1 lead. His first was off a breakaway, as he slipped
the puck between Lehner's skates at the 16:50 mark. Then, with 11.5
seconds remaining until the intermission, Stewart was left
unattended at the side of the Senators' net, where he accepted a
pass from Roy and squeezed a shot past Lehner.
Pageau's first-period goal came in one of the Senators' better
opening segments of the season.
Most recently, Ottawa fell behind 3-0 to the Los Angeles Kings in
the first period Saturday before losing 5-2.
"It's a really good win for our team, to see that we can match up to
the best teams in the league," Lehner said. "We played a 60-minute
game, we kept grinding. It felt really good."
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St. Louis coach Ken Hitchcock liked the way his team survived
the early thrust by the Senators, who led 10-7 in shots at the
first intermission.
"They got their (rear ends) handed to them by Los Angeles, so
they were (ticked) off, they were mad," Hitchcock said of the
Senators. "They played really hard in the first period, but I
thought the way we played in the second was great.
"The second period was one of best road periods we played all
year. We really took it to them, really hemmed them in, at times
overwhelmed them with our forecheck. Overall, the way we played
in the second and third was pretty impressive."
Ryan's goal at 5:44 of the third to tie it up came off a hard
pass by Senators center Kyle Turris. Ryan made a nice move on
Elliott for his 16th of the season.
"Guys came in and we really didn't take a step back in our
approach to the game," said Ryan, who has 15 goals and 11
assists 19 career games against the Blues. "The moral coming in
was that we thought we were going to find a way.
"You look at the game, there was plenty of time where we had
puck possession. There were times St. Louis got it in spurts,
but we did a good job of not letting it get away from us like we
have in the past."
The Blues lost center David Backes in the second period, but
Hitchcock could provide no update on the extent of the injury.
NOTES: Blues W Chris Stewart extended his goal-scoring streak to
three games. He also recorded his fourth multi-point game of the
season, his second in three games. ... Senators C Jean-Gabriel
Pageau scored his second goal of the season and first since
being recalled from AHL Binghamton three games ago. In 20 career
NHL games, Pageau has four goals. ... Blues G Brian Elliott made
28 of 29 saves to win his only other career start against the
Senators. Elliott was with the Senators from 2007-11 before
being traded to Colorado for current Senators G Craig Anderson.
... Senators D Marc Methot missed his third game in a row as he
recovers from the flu. Methot, who lost seven pounds in two
days, is expected back when the Senators visit the New Jersey
Devils on Wednesday.
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