ANAHEIM, Calif. - The Ottawa Senators didn't get much time to enjoy any of their leads in regulation.
The Senators gave up three one-goal leads -- in less than a minute each time -- before Alex Kovalev and Daniel Alfredsson scored in the first two rounds of a shootout to lift Ottawa to a 4-3 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Sunday night and snap a four-game losing streak.
Ryan Getzlaf scored a fluke goal for Anaheim 15 seconds after Jarkko Ruutu got one, Joffrey Lupul tied it again 31 seconds after Jason Spezza regained the lead for the Senators during a power play, and Corey Perry tied again early in the third period -- 50 seconds after Filip Kuba's go-ahead score.
Ottawa goalie Brian Elliott finished with 33 saves and stopped two of three shots in the tiebreaker, helping send Anaheim to its fifth straight loss and salvage the finale of a five-game road trip that began with a shootout loss against Boston.
"I thought our guys showed a lot of resilience," Senators coach Cory Clouston said. "All three times we scored, they scored the next shift. Sometimes that can be very deflating, but I liked our character."
Ottawa ended a seven-game road losing streak and beat Anaheim for the first time in three meetings since the 2007 Stanley Cup finals, which the Ducks won in five games.
"This is an end to the first chapter of the year. We've got this long road trip over with and now we are going back home," Elliott said. "We are going to be playing a lot of games every other night now, so it's going to be another big test. But getting a win tonight was big for us."
Kuba gave the Senators a 3-2 lead 64 seconds into the third period, beating Jean-Sebastien Giguere to the glove side with a 35-foot snap shot after Spezza set him up in the slot with a pass from behind the net.
But the Ducks tied it when Perry carried the puck from the top of the right circle toward the slot and took a backhander that grazed defenceman Anton Volchenkov's jersey and got past Elliott's glove.
"It's desperation for us right now," Perry said. "We're at the 30-game mark. We have to put something together and go on a run here or we're going to be out of it pretty soon. Everybody has to come together and be a team in here. That is how we have to play."
Ruutu opened the scoring at 12:01 of the first period, intercepting James Wisniewski's pass from behind the net and stuffing his fifth goal past Giguere. The Ducks got even when Getzlaf fired the puck off the glass above the left boards from the red line and the carom fooled Elliott, who came out of his crease to retrieve it and ended up embarrassed when it eluded his outstretched glove and trickled into the vacated net.
"It just hit one of the stanchions and went to the far side of the net, so I couldn't get it," Elliott said. "Bad bounce, but what are you going to do? That is what you've got to tell yourself -- you are playing well, don't worry about that, we'll get it back and just keep going."
The Senators then received a two-man advantage for 47 seconds after staggered penalties to Lupul for cross-checking and Todd Marchant for tripping. Spezza regained the lead for Ottawa 10 seconds after the first penalty expired, converting a rebound at the 15:17 mark after Giguere made rapid-fire saves against Kovalev and Daniel Alfredsson.
But the Ducks erased that brief deficit on a wrist shot from the left circle by Lupul that beat Elliott to the glove side. It was the third goal in two games for Lupul, who sat out the previous seven because of back spasms. But the Senators wouldn't be denied, thanks to Elliott's performance in the shootout.
"It was very important -- obviously, with the standings, but just for the confidence of the team and the confidence of Brian," Clouston said. "I thought he played really well. When that first goal goes in, you're thinking, Murphy's Law -- it's going to happen again. But I thought he showed resiliency and a lot of character to not let that goal destroy him."
NOTES: The Ducks are 99-74-21 since their Stanley Cup showdown with Ottawa, and the Senators are 93-76-23. Each club has seven players left on its roster from those finals. ... Alfredsson, the franchise leader in points, goals and assists, hasn't gone more than three consecutive games without a point since a four-game stretch in October 2006. ... Following Tuesday night's game against Dallas, the Ducks will play seven of their next eight on the road. ... Perry, whose franchise-record 19-game point streak ended last week, extended his home point streak to 15 games with his 15th goal. ... Anaheim's opponents were 2 for 26 on the power play over the previous seven games.
