Senators stick with Anderson to face Bruins

Friday, 11.15.2013 / 1:11 PM

By Sean Farrell - NHL.com Correspondent / 2013-2014 At the Rink Blog

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OTTAWA -- Despite allowing five goals in his previous start, Craig Anderson will be in net again for the Ottawa Senators on Friday against the Boston Bruins at Canadian Tire Centre.

In his first start since Nov. 3, Anderson stopped 26 of 31 shots Tuesday in a 5-0 loss to the Philadelphia Flyers. He missed three games because of a sore neck, the result of a goalmouth collision with Dallas Stars rookie Valeri Nichushkin.

Robin Lehner led Ottawa to three straight wins while Anderson was sidelined. Lehner was named the NHL's First Star of the Week on Monday after posting a 1.33 goals-against average and .958 save percentage in wins against the Columbus Blue Jackets, Montreal Canadiens and Florida Panthers.

After making the point that "Craig's the No. 1 goalie," Senators coach Paul MacLean joked about how he arrived at the decision to come back with Anderson against Boston.

"It came up heads?" MacLean said after Ottawa's morning skate.

The Senators committed 20 turnovers in the loss to Philadelphia, which ended a five-game point streak (3-0-2).

"This game is a team game and one person's just a piece of that puzzle," Anderson said. "This isn't football. It's not a sport where it's the quarterback and he's the guy. This is a collective effort and it's not golf, it's not tennis. You need your teammates to help you succeed and when teams are winning everybody seems to be pulling on that rope.

"When things aren't going the way you want it just seems like that maybe three or four guys are going, three or four aren't and it's just kind one of those things where it's just not everybody's on the same page."

Chris Phillips will return to the Senators lineup after a lower-body injury forced him to miss his first game of the season Tuesday. The veteran defenseman will be paired with rookie Mark Borowiecki.

The Bruins did not skate Friday in Ottawa in the wake of their 3-2 overtime win against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday.

Tuukka Rask will be in goal against the Senators after backup Chad Johnson stopped 32 of 34 shots against the Blue Jackets in his third start of the season.

These are the likely lineups for the Bruins and Senators:

BRUINS

Milan Lucic - David Krejci - Jarome Iginla

Brad Marchand - Patrice Bergeron - Loui Eriksson

Carl Soderberg - Chris Kelly - Reilly Smith

Daniel Paille - Gregory Campbell - Shawn Thornton

Zdeno Chara - Dougie Hamilton

Dennis Seidenberg - Torey Krug

Matt Bartkowski - Johnny Boychuk

Tuukka Rask

Chad Johnson

Scratched: Jordan Caron