Bobby Ryan and Craig Anderson lead Senators to 4-2 win over Sharks

OTTAWA – Ottawa’s offence came alive when it was needed most.

The Senators scored three times in the third period and Craig Anderson made 31 saves as Ottawa downed the visiting San Jose Sharks 4-2 on Friday.

“We had chances,” said Bobby Ryan, who opened the scoring in the second period for the Senators. “We got a lot of shots in there and there a lot of positives for us to build on.”

Jean-Gabriel Pageau, Chris Wideman and Erik Karlsson also scored for Ottawa (17-11-5), which has won four in a row on home ice.

Joe Thornton and Brent Burns had the goals for the Sharks (16-15-1), who got a 31-save performance from Alex Stalock.

Pageau started and finished the play that gave the Senators a 2-1 lead midway through the third period.

After cleanly winning a faceoff back to Cody Ceci, Pageau poked the puck over the line after Stalock gave off a rebound from a shot from Dave Dziurzynski.

“I don’t know if I stole it from him, I wish he would have scored but when it’s 1-1 like that you want to make sure it’s in,” said Pageau.

“He made a good play to spin around and take a shot on net, but I guess I stole it.”

Wideman got the eventual winner and Karlsson provided some insurance with goals at 13:06 and 15:51 respectively as the Senators exploded in the final 20 minutes.

“Feels good to get anything at this point,” Wideman said of his first goal in 15 games.

“I’ve had a lot of shots the last couple of games, I saw a little day light and it got through. I think it was a huge win.”

Burns closed out the scoring at 17:36 when his club was already trailing by three goals.

“We came out, for back-to-back games (a 5-4 win in Toronto Thursday) the way we wanted to,” Sharks defenceman Paul Martin said.

“We were able to control some of the play and we had our moments but in the third we gave them some opportunities with some odd-man rushes and they capitalized.”

There was no scoring in the opening 20 minutes of the game, but that was no indication of the effort or opportunities on both sides.

Thornton opened the scoring just 29 seconds into the second with a power-play goal when he took a pass from Burns and beat Anderson with a wrist shot from the slot.

The lead was short lived, though, as Ryan scored just over four minutes later when he cut in front of the net and jammed a puck through Stalock.

The Senators have two games before Christmas as they will travel to Florida for games against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday and Florida Panthers on Tuesday.

The Sharks, meanwhile, will close out a five-game road trip with games against the Chicago Blackhawks Sunday and Los Angeles Kings Tuesday.

Notes: Jared Cowen was the lone scratch for the Senators on Friday night, while Logan Couture, Mike Brown and Matt Tennyson were scratches for the Sharks…Bobby Ryan is one goal shy of 200 for his career. He has 52 with the Senators… Sharks defenceman Marc-Edouard Vlasic has 199 career points…Sharks forward Patrick Marleau has played in 492 consecutive games dating back to April 9, 2009.