Bruins beat Sens in shootout to go top in Northeast

BOSTON (Reuters) - The Boston Bruins moved into first place in the Northeast standings after Michael Ryder scored the only goal of a shootout for a 4-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.

Ryder scored past Ottawa netminder Brian Elliott in the fourth round of the shootout to give the Bruins their fifth win in six games.

"He didn't give me much for a deke, so I just wanted to try to get a high shot on him, and I beat him glove side," Ryder, who also had a goal in regulation, told reporters.

Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson opened the scoring five minutes into the first period and then assisted on Milan Michalek's power-play score at 7:22.

"I thought we got off to a real good start, almost too good too soon and then we got very lethargic in the middle frame," said Senators coach Cory Clouston.

David Krejci scored a power-play goal less than a minute into the second period to make it 2-1 and Ryder leveled the score, again with the man advantage, just before the 10-minute mark.

Dennis Wideman gave the Bruins their first lead at 3-2 midway through the third with their third power-play goal of the game, before Michalek forced overtime by scoring his second of the game with 20 seconds left in regulation.

Boston netminder Tim Thomas, who made his first start in two weeks after missing six games with an injury, was upset with himself for allowing the goal.

"It was a huge letdown for the team," said Thomas, who had 19 saves for the game. "I didn't just let the team down. I let myself down.

"But then to be able to salvage and at least leave there on a positive feeling, it's all you can ask for, added Thomas, who made four stops in the shootout.

Ottawa's Elliott had 30 saves and turned back Boston's first three shots in the shootout.

(Reporting by Gene Cherry in Salvo, North Carolina; Editing by John O'Brien)