Day 1: Senators 3 - Jets 1

Winnipeg, Manitoba (CP) -

The opening of the 2012-13 Ottawa Senators has finally happened. With a long off-season behind, with the Senators being the most active under a first full year with Neil Burkholder at the helm, along with Ron Wilson behind the bench. The hopes are very high after a disappointing season last year finishing with a horrendous 40-36-6. Some teams might consider that successful, but with a history filled Ottawa team that is not acceptable. So Burkholder made a few blockbuster’s that has help the theory to win now, and down in the future.

The first game has them being sent out to Winnipeg to face the Daniel, and Henrik Sedin, along with Jordan Eberle, and new comer in Jaromir Jagr, along with star goalie Cam Ward. The Jet’s finished the pre-season in fifth place with a 5-2-1 record just behind the Ottawa Senators. So tonight was going to be a challenge for both teams to see where they rank in what seems to be a very close Eastern Conference., so every game is going to be big.

Well lets say tonight’s game was very favor table to the Senators defeating the Jets 3-1 and it almost looked effortlessly. In the first period it was pretty and both teams were getting quality scoring chances until the Senators struck first from a goal from Radek Martinek (1G), in the second period Marian Gaborik (1G) sealed the game winner. The Jets weren’t going to go down without a fight and scored late into third by defenseman Roman Polak. But Nathan Horton sealed the deal with the insurance goal, and the Jet’s couldn’t muster anything else.

The Sens won the shot battle 36-28 which is no surprise. Two new players played key roles and that was Marian Gaborik who had a assist and scored the game winner, and the newest, but familiar face Nathan Horton got on the score sheet as well. The real surprise tonight was the stellar play by youngster Tuukka Rask. In the pre-season Tuukka was shaky, but when the games counts he played stellar with saving 27 out of 28 shots.

“We played very well tonight, under the circumstances we have had a lot of turnover and I was expecting a little bit of complications, but it was the opposite tonight. There were some negatives especially our special teams we went oh for four which isn’t good enough, if we go those opportunities we have to cash in on them.”, said Coach Ron Wilson.

Now the Senators head out east to play the Carolina Hurricanes (0-1-0), who took a close loss to the Philadelphia Flyers 2-1. The Hurricanes were fighting back but the 2-0 lead the Flyers took was too much for the defending eastern conference champions to hold onto. So expect the Hurricanes to come out and play with a chip on their shoulder.