Ottawa's Dany Heatley, left, battles with Blues forward Alexander Steen in the first period of Thursday's game. Ottawa won 3-1 thanks to a late game-winner by rookie Peter Regin. (Tom Gannam/Associated Press)

It wasn't pretty, but the Ottawa Senators will take the win.

Playing on the road, the Sens (17-22-7) limited the St. Louis Blues to 23 shots on net and ground out a 3-1 win Thursday night.

Peter Regin was the hero late, breaking a 1-1 deadlock with less than two minutes left in the game.

Regin, a recent callup from the Senators' AHL affiliate in Binghamton, N.Y., capitalized on some poor defensive coverage by St. Louis (19-24-4) late in the contest. He carried the puck into the Blues' zone, circled around behind the net and was allowed to come back out into the slot untouched, where he put one past St. Louis goalie Chris Mason on the short side.

"I tried to shoot it high, but missed and the puck went low," Regin said. "That's often how you score, you miss the puck a little."

It's a goal Mason definitely wants back.

"A heartbreaker. I think that was a team we could have beat there," Mason said. "We played a lot harder in the third period, but it stinks with the result. To let them score with two minutes left kind of leaves a mark."

The late goal was a carbon copy of Ottawa's first on Mason. That one came 10:06 into the first period, and that time it was Sens forward Mike Fisher who circled the net and put one past Mason.

Fisher, who had a burr in his saddle from the first puck drop, also added an empty-netter when St. Louis had six attackers on the ice late in the game.

The Senators coach liked what he saw from his team, which has had its fair share of troubles on the road this season.

Hard-working hockey

"We played 60 minutes of real, hard-working hockey," Craig Hartsburg said. "It's what we've been asking for, and we got it tonight."

St. Louis responded to Fisher's goal in the first period at 13:04 of the same stanza, only moments after Jason Spezza missed an empty net to extend the Sens lead. Some hard work in the Ottawa zone paid off when Brad Winchester tipped a centring pass into the net, tying the game.

But that's all the scoring that would come until the last minutes of the match. Chances were few and far between for both teams, as Ottawa buckled down and checked the Blues hard at every turn.

All their hard work almost amounted to nothing though, as the Sens couldn't pull the trigger during their five power-play chances, including a five-on-three to start the third period.

Ottawa looked better on their penalty kill, where they actually scored a goal and always threatened thanks to Fisher's outstanding play.

Though St. Louis was outshot for most of the contest, they hung around and threatened to steal the game in the third period, with Ottawa reeling after the blown two-man advantage chance earlier in the frame.

But cue Sens goalie Brian Elliot, who made a series of massive saves in the middle of the third period when the Blues turned up the heat.

Blues head coach Andy Murray said he wanted more effort from his team, which was coming off an eight-day break thanks to the NHL's all-star weekend.

"I didn't like what I saw," Murray said. "I thought for the significance of the game and having three days of practice, that our sense of urgency and intensity was not at a level we needed."

With files from the Associated Press