Down 2-0, Senators call on pride

OTTAWA – The flag of the Ottawa Senators flies throughout Canada’s capital, flapping closely next to the red Maple Leaf in front of hotels, office buildings and in car windows.

It was also spotted outside a funeral parlor, which could be an omen if things don’t change tonight on the home ice of the Eastern Conference champions.

The Senators are back on familiar ground after dropping the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals to the Anaheim Ducks in Southern California.

Ottawa is getting set to host the championship series for the first time in 80 years. The original version of the team won the last of its four championships in 1927, before moving to St. Louis. The Senators were reborn in 1992 and the drought has not ended.

So far, the Ducks have carried the play and looked dominant. That’s been quite a change for the Senators, who flew through three rounds in the East by winning each in five games – including a thrashing of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Buffalo Sabres in the conference finals.

Two one-goal losses in Anaheim put the Senators on the brink of making a quick exit, and they will need to make the most of their first home game in 17 days to change the slippery slope on which they’re sliding.

“We feel we can be a lot better, and I feel playing at home is going to bring that out of us,” Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson said Friday. “We fought a lot of adversity throughout the year, and I think the way we responded makes me comfortable going into (Game 3).”

The Senators dropped four of their first six games in the regular season and were 7-11-1 before a spurt in which they won eight of nine. Just when it seemed Ottawa had turned things around, a 2-6 skid put it squarely behind the Sabres in the Northeast Division.

Ray Emery took over for No. 1 goalie Martin Gerber, and the Senators rode a 10-1-1 surge past the .500 mark – a level of mediocrity they didn’t approach again the rest of the season.

This kind of trouble is a whole different issue, though.

“There’s always adversities through every series,” Alfredsson said. “Our approach now is Game 3. That’s the biggest game of the year for us.

“Everybody has got to go out there and play their best. Don’t look too far ahead, don’t look at what’s happening in the previous rounds or games.”

Should the Senators lose today, the odds only get longer. Only once has a team turned around a 3-0 deficit in the finals and won the Cup.