DUCKS' LEAD VANISHES; SENATORS ERASE TWO-GOAL DEFICIT AND EARN A TIE : DUCKS 2, OTTAWA 2.

Byline: Greg Christensen

The Ottawa Senators had every reason to throw in the towel. They were down by two goals, playing in California, where they had won only twice in franchise history.

But these aren't the Ottawa Senators of old and they rallied to tie the Mighty Ducks 2-2 Wednesday night at the Pond before 16,026.

After falling behind 2-0 in the second period, the Senators dominated the majority of the game. And when they didn't, goalie Damian Rhodes came to the rescue.

Rhodes stopped what appeared to be the go-ahead when he jammed his left leg pad against the post to stop Marty McInnis, who had been set up by Tomas Sandstrom with just over two minutes to play in regulation.

The Ducks got a big break midway through the first period when Marian Hossa appeared to have tied the game 1-1 just 70 seconds after Pascal Trepanier had scored Anaheim's first goal in over seven periods of play.

Hossa beat Guy Hebert easily from close range after Radek Bonk turned Ruslan Salei around with a couple of nifty moves and centered the puck to his rookie linemate. But the video goal judge ruled that Magnus Arvedson's skate was in the crease, even though he appeared to be trapped in by Fredrik Olausson and Paul Kariya.

Anaheim, however, got no such breaks in the second period, at least not after Matt Cullen hit the top, left corner of the net off a centering pass by Jeff Nielsen to give the Ducks a 2-0 lead at 2:19. It was all Ottawa the rest of the period.

The Senators swarmed all over the Ducks, outshooting them 15-3 and tying the score on goals by Alexei Yashin at 12:41 and Hossa at 17:47.

Yashin scored his league-leading 39th goal of the year when his shot from from a bad angle went through Hebert's legs. The play was reviewed, but the power-play goal stood and soon the ice seemed tilted toward the Ducks' net.

Teemu Selanne hit the post with a shot about a minute after Yashin scored, but it was time for Hossa to show his stuff again.

He was stopped by Hebert after he picked the pocket of Salei with just under four minutes left in the period. But less than two minutes later, Hossa made a nice move to get around Cullen and beat Hebert high on the glove side.

The Ducks had taken the early lead in the first period when McInnis won a draw cleanly. The puck bounced off the boards to Trepanier, who hammered home a 45-footer for his second goal of the year. It was Anaheim first goal since the second period of last Wednesday's 5-5 tie with Vancouver.

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Photo

PHOTO Ottawa defenseman Janne Laukkanen, left, moves the puck down the ice as the Ducks' Marty McInnis tracks him in the first period.

John Hayes/Associated Press