The Boston Bruins will try to continue their dominance of the Ottawa Senators as the B's host Tuesday's Northeast Division clash at TD Garden.
Boston, which is second in the Northeast and four points ahead of the Senators, is 3-0 against Ottawa this season and has won four straight and 12 of the last 13 meetings in this series. The Sens also have dropped five of their last six in Boston.
The Bruins had lost two in a row before notching Sunday's 2-0 win at Buffalo. David Krejci scored the game-winning goal with 7:06 left to lead Boston to just its third win in eight games (3-4-1).
Anton Khudobin turned away all 26 shots he faced to notch his first shutout of the season, and the second of his career.
Krejci also had an assist, while Nathan Horton chipped in with a goal and an assist for the Bruins, who were coming off Saturday's 3-1 setback in Philadelphia.
"It was better, absolutely. And I think we're going to call it a step forward," Boston head coach Claude Julien said. "The effort tonight was much better. We're skating better."
The Bruins enter Tuesday trailing idle Montreal by three points for the Northeast lead. Boston also is fourth in the East and is four points ahead of the Senators and Toronto.
Boston is 11-2-2 as the home team and is playing two straight and three of its next four at the Garden.
Ottawa had a three-game win streak halted in its last trip to the ice, losing Saturday's 4-0 decision against visiting Toronto. Nazem Kadri netted his second hat trick of the season and Joffrey Lupul added a goal and three assists to lead the Maple Leafs to the rout.
Ben Bishop was victimized for all four goals on 23 shots in the loss for the Senators, who came into the game having won six of seven.
"We had way too many giveaways tonight," said Ottawa head coach Paul MacLean. "Two of them were in front of the net and you can't keep asking your goaltender to make those saves. That's what lost us the game."
Ottawa now faces a huge test as it begins a season-high seven-game road trip. The Senators are just 6-7-3 as the away team this season compared to their strong 13-3-3 mark on home ice.
Senators goaltender Craig Anderson is joining the team for this trip and there's a good chance he'll return to game action during the swing. Ottawa's No. 1 backstop hasn't played since Feb. 21 due to a sprained right ankle, but he returned to practice last week.
Anderson is 8-4-2 with a 1.49 goals against average in 15 games this season and was a leading Vezina Trophy candidate before getting injured.
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