HENRIK LUNDQVIST has been among the NHL's best goalies lately. Ottawa's Craig Anderson won't be joining his New York Rangers counterpart at the All-Star Game, but he sure is making a good case that he should be.
Anderson made 34 saves for his first shutout of the season, Jason Spezza scored twice and the visiting Senators beat the surging Rangers, 3-0, last night.
Milan Michalek also scored for the Sens, who have won five straight at Madison Square Garden and seven of eight overall.
"He's just so steady back there right now and you can tell he's got confidence," Spezza said. "When your goalie exudes that type of confidence, the team has that type of confidence. He's done a great job calming things down when we are scrambling a little bit. There's times in the game where the other team is going to take momentum, and he's done a good job of taking it back."
Anderson did that in posting his 17th career shutout. The Senators are 10-1-2 in their last 13.
"Andy [Anderson] played real well for us," Ottawa coach Paul MacLean said. "I think there was one play in the first period, I thought there was a second or third opportunity for them, but for the most part we kept it to one and done."
New York, which entered with the most points in the NHL, had won five straight and 10 of 11. They received little from leading scorer Marian Gaborik, who didn't record a shot on goal for the third time this season. They also played without center Brandon Dubinsky (sore right shoulder).
"They're a team that has been outworking a lot of teams, and they grind you down," Spezza said. "I thought we were right there with them competing and not giving up any ground. Andy played great."
In other games:
* At Calgary, Blair Jones scored at 1:51 of overtime to give the Flames a 1-0 victory over the Anaheim Ducks.
* At Winnipeg, Antti Niemi made 24 saves as the San Jose Sharks blanked the Jets, 2-0.
* At Chicago, Dave Bolland had two goals, and rookie Jimmy Hayes and Viktor Stalberg scored 23 seconds apart in a three-goal second period as the Blackhawks beat the Minnesota Wild, 5-2.
* At St. Louis, Daniel Sedin scored a power-play goal 46 seconds into overtime to give the Vancouver Canucks a 3-2 victory over the Blues in a matchup for first place in the Western Conference.
* At Nashville, David Legwand scored his second goal of the game at 4:26 of overtime, and the Predators rallied from a two-goal first-period deficit in beating the Colorado Avalanche, 3-2.
* At Detroit, Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg scored in the shootout, and the Red Wings beat the Phoenix Coyotes, 3-2, for their 13th straight home win.
* At Tampa, Jiri Tlusty had two goals and an assist, Tuomo Ruutu added a goal and two assists, and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Lightning, 5-2.
* At Boston, Jordan Caron and Milan Lucic scored, and Tim Thomas stopped 33 shots to lead the Bruins to a 2-1 victory over the Montreal Canadiens.
After the game, Canadiens GM Pierre Gauthier confirmed that forward Michael Cammalleri was traded to the Calgary Flames for forward Rene Bourque.
