The Ottawa Senators learned Thursday night what the Montreal Canadiens did two nights earlier — that the St. Louis Blues are no pushovers.

Jason Spezza's second-period goal stood up as the winner as the Senators rallied for a 3-2 victory over the visiting Blues at Scotiabank Place.

Antoine Vermette opens the scoring on Hannu Toivonen in Thursday's 3-2 Senators triumph.
(Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)

"There was not a lot separating the teams," Blues head coach Andy Murray said.

With the win, Ottawa kept pace in the Eastern Conference with the fourth-ranked Pittsburgh Penguins, who dumped the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-2.

The Senators stayed three points behind front-running Montreal in the Northeast Division as the Canadiens defeated the Boston Bruins 4-2.

"It is going to be an exciting couple of weeks," Senators forward Mike Fisher said. "There are a lot of huge games, and teams fighting for spots.

"It is going to be like the playoffs because we need wins. We're trying to get our full game back."

"The fact that we play our division the rest of the way, it is good," Spezza said. "It makes for tough games, but it gets you ready for the playoffs."

Spezza put Ottawa ahead 7:39 into the second on a gorgeous give-and-go with Dany Heatley, whose return pass was tipped out of midair and into the net by the stylish centre.

It was Spezza's 31st goal of the season.

Antoine Vermette and Cristoph Schubert had the other goals and Martin Gerber made 23 stops as the Senators (41-26-7) earned a fourth win in five games.

"For the most part, we played a pretty solid game," Fisher said. "It was a good win for us to find a way."

Hannu Toivonen had 21 saves for the Blues (30-33-11), who halted a six-game losing skid Tuesday night in Montreal.

St. Louis is 1-6-1 on the road trip, which concludes Sunday in Chicago.

"They have got a couple of players that are among the best players in this league," Toivonen said. "They showed some skill."

Vermette opens scoring 

Vermette opened the scoring 2:06 into the contest, beating Toivonen between the pads for his 18th.

Jamal Mayers and Jeff Woywitka replied later in the first period, scoring less than three minutes apart to make it 2-1.

But Ottawa pulled even with 3:43 remaining in the period, when Schubert converted Dean McAmmond's centring pass from the slot for his seventh.

"We have had an inability to score goals at key times," Murray said. "When it was 2-1, we had a chance to go up even more and didn't capitalize on our chances."

Barret Jackman ruined any bid at a comeback for St. Louis, when he was penalized four minutes for hooking and unsportsmanlike conduct with 8:20 left in the third period.

"We didn't capitalize, but we still didn't allow them any chances," Fisher said.

The Blues hadn't visited the nation's capital since losing 3-1 on Feb. 10, 2004.

With files from the Canadian Press