Defenseman is praised for his fearlessness, and Ottawa coach counts on him to inspire others on the team to save more shots.

By Lonnie White and Eric Stephens, Times Staff Writers

Preventing shots on goal has been a strong point for the Ottawa Senators throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs, thanks to the shot-blocking ability of defenseman Anton Volchenkov.

"You see some of the shots he gets in front of a lot of times [they are] from so far out that he's down and could easily be hitting him in the face," Ottawa defenseman Chris Phillips said before facing the Ducks in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup finals. "I think he just hopes that it gets him into his chest or legs. But he really is just fearless. He'll get in front of everything."

That was evident early Monday night at Honda Center. Volchenkov, who led all players with 61 blocked shots after three playoff rounds, had three of the Senators' five blocked shots in the first period.

Ottawa finished with 22 blocked shots compared to only 13 for the Ducks. Volchenkov finished with a game-high 10.

"He's got a better save percentage than I do," Ottawa goaltender Ray Emery said of Volchenkov, who led the league during the regular season with 288 blocked shots and set a career-high for a single game with 11 against Buffalo in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals.

"It's great for me. He not only [gets] the normal blocked shot, but he makes saves where there's an empty net, back-door passes, things like that. So it's great for me having a guy like that is so good at doing that and can read the plays so well."

Volchenkov's willingness to block shots has been contagious, Ottawa Coach Bryan Murray said.

"He's just fearless," Murray said. " By him doing it, it's helped other guys I think recognize that we should sacrifice in that area a little bit. So I would say there's a leader in that particular area, Anton has really done a job."

In 15 playoff games, Emery has been needed to make 381 saves, thanks to the shot-blocking ability of the Senators' group of defensemen. In comparison, the Ducks' Jean-Sebastien Giguere and Ilya Bryzgalov have combined to make 478 saves in 16 postseason games and Vancouver's Roberto Luongo made 428 saves in only 12 games.

"They don't let a lot of shots through," Ducks center Ryan Getzlaf said. "They do a real good job of getting down in front of shots. It's not just [Volchenkov], their whole D does a good job at that."