Arena: Mellon Arena
Time: Thursday, 28 January, 2010 at 7:00 PM ET
League: NHL – United States of America

Last 10 matches: Senators 7-3-0; Penguins 6-4-0
It wasn’t that long ago that the Senators were missing their two biggest guns in Daniel Alfredsson and Jason Spezza, while No. 1 goalie Pascal Leclaire had been in and out of the lineup with injury. The Sens continued to tread water during their absence, but now have Alfredsson and Spezza back and have won six in a row to close in on Buffalo for first place in the Northeast.
“I keep going back to the games even before that, when we were losing (five straight),” coach Cory Clouston said. “We still played hard, we worked hard and now, when you bring in Alfredsson, (Milan) Michalek and Spezza, you’re basically inserting your whole first line (back into the lineup). So it does give us options offensively.
“Our power play has been better as of late and it’s no coincidence that when you add those type of players to your power play, it’s going to improve. I liked our work ethic before, I liked our execution … we just weren’t coming away with wins.”This is the last of four meetings, with Pittsburgh winning two of the first three. On Oct. 12, Tyler Kennedy scored twice and Marc-Andre Fleury made 30 saves to lead the Penguins to a 4-1 road win. On Nov. 19, defenseman Chris Phillips scored twice in his 800th regular-season game and Pascal Leclaire made 25 saves in Ottawa’s 6-2 home win. Phillips scored goals 2:03 apart in the third to put Ottawa up 5-1 and chase Fleury. On Dec. 23, Evgeni Malkin recorded his fourth career hat trick and Guerin added 2 goals and 2 assists in Pittsburgh’s 8-2 home win.
For the Senators, Leclaire (concussion) and Jesse Winchester (knee) are on injured reserve. For the Penguins, Chris Kunitz (abdominal surgery) is on injured reserve, and Alex Goligoski (undisclosed), Guerin (undisclosed) and Maxime Talbot (lower body) are day-to-day.
Gonchar is one goal away from 200 in his career. … Pittsburgh’s Dan Bylsma became the eighth-fastest coach to reach 50 wins in NHL history following a 2-1 victory against Philadelphia on Sunday. Bylsma reached career win No. 50 in his 78th game (50-23-5), trailing only Tom Johnson (67), Bep Guidolin (69), Pat Burns (75), Todd McLellan (76), Mike Keenan (77), Pat Quinn (77) and Pete Green (77). … The Penguins have five hat tricks this season, already matching last season’s total. Those posting three goals are Crosby (Oct. 28 vs. Montreal, Nov. 28 vs. N.Y. Rangers), Malkin (Dec. 23 vs. Ottawa, Jan. 19 vs. NY Islanders) and Mike Rupp (Nov. 30 at N.Y. Rangers). … Elliott was named the NHL’s First Star of the Week for Jan. 18-24. He won all four of his starts while allowing five goals and making 110 saves. Highlights and results will be available soon.. stay with us.