ALLARD: SENS KEEP WINNING DESPITE STARS GOING AWOL

Jean-Pierre Allard of Smarting Senators will share his thoughts on Ottawa's hockey team at various points throughout the playoffs. Here are his thoughts following the Sens' 2-1 win over the Penguins in Game 4.

The Senators found another way to win a close game while continuing to display some much welcomed grit. They have now totally outplayed the Penguins for nine of 12 periods with their top scorer Dany Heatley being virtually invisible despite his three points, once-top defenceman Wade Redden being relegated to the third pairing and looking more and more like he's kaput (unless he's afflicted with both upper and lower-body injuries) and goalie Ray Emery being just good enough to win but still not showing the form of a No. 1 goalie à la St-Patrick or his éminence grise Martin Brodeur, though last night's performance was his best thus far.

This is actually great news for Ottawa. Try and imagine how much more lethal this squad will be if and when these marquee players (this also includes Mike Fisher and Antoine Vermette) elevate their games back to what we are used to seeing.

Also, Daniel Alfredsson leading the team in points is not at all surprising but what do you think of him also leading Ottawa with eight penalty minutes in the first three games? (Chris Phillips took over the team lead last night with 10 PIMs

Is this a reflection of Alfie being on a mission -- witness his crunching hit on Gary Roberts in Game 3 -- or is it more that of his mates, especially the defensive corps (Reds, Joe Corvo and Tom Preissing), missing a little nastiness? Draw your own conclusions.

Another way of looking at last night's game is that the young and inexperienced Penguins -- 16 of them are new to post-season play -- are learning with every hard and cruel lesson administered by the players under the tutelage of Professor Bryan Murray - say John Muckler, hope you're working on a brand new contract for your head coach.

The Pens could have easily won last night's crucial game as they were victimized by a flukey goal by Jason Spezza 3:25 into the game that totally took the Pittsburgh crowd out of the game. Sid’s Kids recovered and totally dominated the second period, but that netted them only Jordan Staal's goal at 8:08. The Senators came out won the third, with Anton Volchenkov getting the game-winner after a brilliant play and pass by Ottawa's new LBP (Little Big Player) Mike Comrie, who continues to turn heads with his brave and inspired gritty play.

The only sour note of this highly exciting game was another one of those borderline calls made by Bettman's Buffoons when they sent the Pens' Michel Ouellet off for hooking Oleg Saprykin, of all people, with 6:39 minutes left in the game, the only penalty of the period.

SAPRISTI!

I missed more than half of the game since I, in addition to 1,025 brave and loyal Ottawa baseball fans, attended the Ottawa Lynx’s 15th and likely last home opener last night (thank you Ottawa Senators and all of your corporate sponsors and ticket subscribers for turning your back on baseball), a 6:05 start with game time temperatures of 8 C that the Lynx won 3-2. Hey, when you've been rewarded with a media pass to the press box, the very least you can do is be appreciative and show up for the home opener.

So now, Pittsburgh has been pronounced dead by all Ottawa scribes, though a tad prematurely, because all they have to do is win the next game and then what?

I don't want to think of all the ramifications of the Sens having to go back to Pittsburgh for a Game 6, Sunday afternoon NBC-imposed broadcast, with the momentum having shifted to Michel Therrien's team and with Redden's infamous penchant for sucking big time in matinee affairs.

So brave Centurions, do us all a favour and knock them Pens senseless on the mat tomorrow night.

Jean-Pierre Allard is a freelance writer who has been following the Expos/Senators for MVN since 2004. In addition, he has covered the Ottawa Senators since 2004-05 on MVN and now will chronicle the 2007 Ottawa Lynx, the Philadelphia Phillies' Triple-A team.

His work has also been published in the Washington Times, Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Sun, Toronto Sun, Calgary Herald, Vancouver Province and Ottawa City Woman Magazine. As a sports historian, he has also appeared on Global TV, CBC radio and SRC radio.