Anderson, Senators head into holiday break on a high note with 5-0 win over Pens

OTTAWA - Craig Anderson made 27 saves for his second shutout of the season as the Ottawa Senators defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-0 on Monday.

The game was relatively close after two periods but the Senators dominated the Penguins in the third outshooting them 15-9 while getting goals from Erik Karlsson, Kyle Turris and Cory Conacher.

Zack Smith and Bobby Ryan also scored for the Senators (15-17-7) and Anderson earned the 24th shutout of his career.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 24 saves for the Penguins (27-22-1), but saw his personal five-game winning streak come to an end.

The win ended a three-game losing streak for the Senators with all three of those losses coming in Ottawa since they beat the St. Louis last Monday, also at the Canadian Tire Centre.

The Penguins had won 12 of their last 13 games in Ottawa, including seven in a row. Pittsburgh had only been shut out once this season as they fell 1-0 at home to the Colorado Avalanche on Oct. 21.

The shutout was the first for the Senators since they blanked the Buffalo Sabres 1-0 in their first game of the season.

Defenceman Marc Methot set an early tone that it was going to be a physical night.

With the Penguins breaking towards the Ottawa goal, Methot took Sidney Crosby out with a hard hip check. Crosby wasn't hurt on the play but his spinning body was catapulted into Pascal Dupuis who went down and hit hard into the end boards.

Dupuis left the game with what was later described as a lower body injury and did not return. Crosby was mostly ineffective the rest of the game.

Smith opened the scoring at 6:54 of the first period when he put a backhand in a very small opening between Fleury's left skate and the post after the Penguins netminder made a pad save of Cody Ceci.

Anderson held Pittsburgh at bay and stopped two Penguins on breakaways in the second period, including one shorthanded by Brandon Sutter. The other was a glove save off James Neal.

In between those breakaways, Ryan scored his first goal in four games when he directed a point shot from Chris Phillips past Fleury at 5:56. It came on the same power play that the Senators surrendered on Sutter's breakaway.

Notes- Patrick Wiercioch, Joe Corvo and Mika Zibanejad were scratches for the Senators Monday and for the Penguins, Deryk Engelland, Brian Gibbons and Evgeni Malkin were scratches…Ottawa is now 7-1-3 this season when leading a game after two period…Senators defenceman Chris Phillips snapped a 10-game pointless streak with a second-period assist…Sidney Crosby at least one point in 31 of Pittsburgh's 39 games this season…Marc-Andre Fleury has played 499 career games, all with the Penguins…Penguins forward Chris Cooner turned 30 on Monday