Category: Sports

OTTAWA, ON — Tim Stutzle had a goal and two assists, Joonas Korpisalo stopped 21 shots and the Ottawa Senators beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-2 on Thursday night.

Brady Tkachuk, Rourke Chartier, Vladimir Tarasenko, Mathieu Joseph and Parker Kelly also scored for Ottawa. The Senators won for the second time in eight games to improve to 16-24-0.

Ottawa responded after interim coach Jacques Martin challenged the team after a 7-4 loss to Colorado on Tuesday night, saying he needed a better effort and more determination from some people.

“I thought it was a really good effort for 60 minutes,” Martin said. “I thought we played on our toes. What I like is, the last couple of games, I like the amount of time we’re spending in the offensive zone. I think it’s a step in the right direction.”

Cole Caufield and Michael Pezzetta scored for Montreal. Coming off a 3-2 victory over New Jersey on Wednesday night, the Canadiens dropped to 19-19-7.

Cayden Primeau made 32 saves for Montreal.

Montreal, playing its ninth back-to-back, has struggled this season on the tail end of those back-to-backs with a 1-8-0 record.

“We’ve had a tough schedule here,” Caufield said. “Playing back-to-back is tough, but at the end of the day the league doesn’t care and we’ve got to be ready for those things.”

Leading 4-1 to open the third, the Senators didn’t take long to make this one look ugly.

After a turnover at center ice, Stutzle broke in and made a nice drop pass to Joseph for his seventh of the season.

“I haven’t been playing the way I want to play,” Stutzle said. “The last three games, I think I’ve got my confidence back. I think the whole group, I mean, we’re getting pucks to the net, we’ve got guys on the goalie and it makes the job easier.”

Kelly added his empty-netter when the Canadiens pulled Primeau with over seven minutes remaining.

Pezzetta made it 6-2 by winning a battle for the puck in front late in the third.

OTTAWA, ON – Susanna Tapani scored her first two goals of the season, including the game-winner, as Minnesota rallied from a two-goal deficit to win 3-2 in overtime on the road against Ottawa on Wednesday.

Tapani scored 1:57 into the extra frame, when the forward carried the puck into Ottawa’s zone and shot the puck from the outside hash marks— the puck ricocheted off an Ottawa player and flipped up-and-over Emerance Maschmeyer’s shoulder to end the game 3-2.

The three-time Finnish Olympian first got on the board at the 3:21 mark of the second period with a powerplay goal assisted by Taylor Heise and Lee Stecklein. Tapani took the cross-ice feed from Heise and wristed the puck far-side and into the back of the net, which brought Minnesota to within one goal.

The goal was Minnesota’s first on the powerplay this season after the team went 0/8 in their first five games played.

The crowd at TD Place in Ottawa was treated to a first period lead for the second time in two home games, as Ottawa’s first round draft pick Savannah Harmon was first on the board just 3:41 into the game. The goal was Harmon’s first of the year.

On the play, forward Emily Clark recorded the assist after she rushed the puck from her own end and into the offensive zone, then fed the puck to Harmon who roofed it past Nicole Hensley.

Less than ten minutes later, Lexie Adzija scored a powerplay goal, assisted by Jincy Roese and Kateřina Mrázová, at 10:55 to put Ottawa up 2-0. The goal—Adzija’s first of the season and first-ever professional mark— came after a Roese shot from the point created a rebound, which Adzija tapped home.

After Tapani’s 2-1 goal earlier in the frame, Grace Zumwinkle evened the score at 2-2 with a shorthanded goal at 11:20 in the second period.

On the penalty kill, Zumwinkle cut to the net and roofed the puck from in tight past Maschmeyer, which also freed Tapani from the box. This is the third ‘jailbreak’ shorthanded goal in the PWHL this season and Zumwinkle’s league-leading fifth tally. Kelly Pannek got the lone assist on the goal, her third helper of the season.

After neither team could capitalize in the third period, the game required 3-on-3 overtime, the second OT game each team has played this season.

Ottawa’s homestand continues with back-to-back games against Toronto and Boston on January 23 and 24. Minnesota’s next game is a home date with Montréal on January 24.

OTTAWA, ON — Mikko Rantanen had a pair of goals and the Colorado Avalanche scored four unanswered goals in the third period goals to beat the Ottawa Senators 7-4 on Tuesday night.

Trailing 4-3 to start the third period, Colorado didn’t take long to tie the game with Miles Wood taking advantage of a clear lane to the net.

Sam Malinski gave the Avalanche the lead with a power-play goal with a shot from the top of the slot at the eight-minute mark. Logan O’Connor added some insurance with a late goal and Devon Toews added an empty-net goal.

Jason Polin also scored for Colorado, while Justus Annunen, making his season debut, had 36 saves. Samuel Girard had three assists.

“On a back-to-back, going against a fresh team, that’s sort of what you need to do, have everyone pulling on the reins, have everyone contributing in different ways,” O’Connor said.

“I thought Justus (Annunen) was also huge for us when we needed him. He made a lot of key stops and gave us the opportunity to come back there in the third.”

Ridly Greig led Ottawa with two goals while Drake Batherson and Jake Sanderson also scored. Mads Sogaard, also making is season debut in net, stopped 27 shots for the Senators.

The effort left Senators coach Jacques Martin disappointed.

“I think we just need a better effort from some people,” Martin said. “We need more determination.”

The Senators held their own against the Avalanche for 40 minutes, but couldn’t find a way to shut them down in the third.

“I don’t know if it’s exactly the third period,” said captain Brady Tkachuk, who had three assists. “It’s never really a 60-minute effort. I think we let off the gas … we just need to find a way to just put in a consistent 60-minute effort and make life a little bit easier for our goalies.”

Ottawa took the lead early in the second when Annunen juggled Tkachuk’s shot and Greig poked the puck in. Colorado tied it just over one minute later when Polin beat Sogaard with a snap shot to the far corner for his first NHL goal.

Greig gave the Senators the lead at the seven-minute mark with his second of the night and Sanderson with a beautiful move made it 4-2 at the midway mark of the period.

Colorado appeared to make it a one-goal game, but a goal by Malinski was reviewed and was ruled offside. Just over a minute later Rantanen scored his second of the game.

The teams exchanged first-period goals.

Ottawa opened the scoring with a power-play goal when Batherson drilled Logan O’Connor with a shot and then fired the puck home. Bust 38 seconds later Colorado tied the game when Rantanen, from one knee, tipped in Cale Makar’s shot.

OTTAWA, ON — Vladimir Tarasenko scored with five seconds remaining in the third period as Ottawa snapped a five-game losing streak with a victory over San Jose.

Claude Giroux, Thomas Chabot, Brady Tkachuk and Drake Batherson also scored for Ottawa, while Joonas Korpisalo turned away 14 shots.

Anthony Duclair, Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Kevin Labanc and Filip Zadina scored for the Sharks. Mackenzie Blackwood stopped 36 shots.

Zadina tied the game with three minutes remaining in regulation.

OTTAWA, ON – Anton Forsberg made 45 saves and Ottawa beat the Buffalo Sabres 5-1 on Sunday night in Senators interim coach Jacques Martin’s 1,300th NHL game.

Ottawa won after removing the interim tag and appointing Steve Staios as general manager Sunday. Martin took over as interim coach about two weeks ago after D.J. Smith was fired.

Zack MacEwen and Mark Kastelic each had their first goal of the season and Dominik Kubalik, Jakob Chychrun and Artem Zub also scored to help Ottawa improve to 15-18-0. Thomas Chabot had two assists in his return after missing 12 games because of a leg injury.

Tage Thompson scored for Buffalo, and Devon Levi made 26 saves.The Sabres are 15-19-4.

Ottawa opened the scoring with Chychrun’s power-play goal at 6:51 of the first period. Chychrun one-timed it past Levi for his 200th career point. McEwen made it 2-0, and Thompson countered for Buffalo with 13 seconds remaining in the period.

Ottawa took a 3-1 lead seven minutes into the second when Ridly Greig deked past Rasmus Dahlin and dished a pass over to Kubalik, who got a piece of the bouncing puck. Kastelic scored with 15 seconds remaining in the period.

Zub had an empty-net goal in the third.

Ottawa also made Dave Poulin the senior vice-president of hockey operations and Ryan Bowness associate general manager. Bowness had been the general manager of the Senators’ AHL farm team, the Belleville Senators.

OTTAWA, ON – Jesper Bratt had a goal and three assists, and the New Jersey Devils beat the Ottawa Senators 6-2 on Friday night for their third straight win.

Brothers Luke and Jack Hughes each had a goal and two assists for the Devils (19-13-2), and Dawson Mercer, Tyler Toffoli and Brendan Smith also scored. Nico Daws made 25 saves.

Drake Batherson and Jacob Bernard-Docker scored for the Senators (13-18-0), who had won two in a row. Joonas Korpisalo stopped 24 shots.

New Jersey carried a 4-1 lead into the final period. After killing a penalty, Nico Hischier hit Smith with a breakaway pass as he left the penalty box. Smith beat Korpisalo with a deke for his first goal with the Devils.

With just under seven minutes to play, Bernard-Docker took a point shot that hit a Devils player in front and went past Daws. It was his third goal of the season.

Luke Hughes then closed out the scoring, making it 6-2 with his sixth goal with 2:32 left.

The Senators opened the scoring midway through the first when Brady Tkachuk intercepted a clearing attempt inside the Devils’ blue line and fed Batherson in front. Batherson waited for Daws to go down and flipped the puck over him.

New Jersey responded with a pair of power-play goals. Jack Hughes scored at 13:10 and then Bratt put the Devils ahead with just eight seconds to play in the period.

In the second, New Jersey upped its lead to 4-1. Mercer scored at 7:17, followed by Toffoli at 14:47

The Senators finished 0 for 4 on the power play, and the Devils were 2 for 4.

OTTAWA, ON – Tim Stutzle scored 70 seconds into overtime and the Ottawa Senators snapped a six-game losing streak with a 5-4 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.

Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris, Erik Brannstrom and Jakob Chychrun also scored for Ottawa, which won its first game during Jacques Martin’s second stint as coach. Anton Forsberg made 30 saves.

Martin took over behind the bench on an interim basis when the Senators fired D.J. Smith on Monday. He also coached the team for nine seasons from 1995-96 through 2003-04.

Lars Eller, Rickard Rakell, Drew O’Connor and Kris Letang scored for the Penguins while Alex Nedeljkovic stopped 21 shots.

Trailing 4-2 to start the third, the Penguins made it a one-goal game just 1:51 into the period when O’Connor deflected Marcus Petersson’s point shot. Letang tied the game with 2:26 remaining.

Leading 2-1, Ottawa extended its lead early in the second when Claude Giroux made a great pass through traffic to a streaking Tkachuk, who tipped home his 15th of the season.

Pittsburgh made it a one-goal game when Rakell tipped home Sidney Crosby’s pass, but Ottawa padded its lead on Brannstrom’s second of the season at 7:30. The goal required a lengthy review, but stood.

The Senators got the start they were looking for jumping out to a 2-1 lead in the first period.

Chychrun opened the scoring, sliding on one knee to score on the rebound of Giroux’s shot at 11:07. The Penguins tied the game with a power-play goal at 14:31 when Eller beat Forsberg short side. Ottawa regained the lead 30 seconds later when Norris batted a shot past Nedeljkovic.

OTTAWA, ON – Sebastian Aho had two goals and an assist to lead the Carolina Hurricanes to a 4-1 win over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday night.

Matin Necas and Seth Jarvis also scored for Carolina. Pyotr Kochetkov made 31 saves as the Hurricanes snapped a four-game skid.

Josh Norris scored for the Senators, who had their three-game winning streak halted. Joonas Korpisalo stopped 24 shots.

The Senators opened the scoring seven minutes in, when Norris tipped in a shot by Erik Brannstrom.

Carolina tied the game with a power-play goal with 1:11 left in the period. Brady Skeji made a great pass to Necas, who beat Korpisalo on the short side.

Aho gave Carolina the lead with a power-play goal on a shot from the point at 12:18 of the second period. He picked up an assist 81 seconds later when Jarvis beat Korpisalo.

Aho added another goal at 17:19, taking advantage of poor defensive coverage and going in uncontested to score his 10th goal of the season.

Down by three to start the third period, Ottawa pressed to get back in the game, but Kochetkov was solid. He stopped Drake Batherson, who was playing his 250th career game, on a breakaway midway through the period, and also stopped Brady Tkachuk on a penalty shot late in the game.

Tkachuk was awarded the penalty shot after officials whistled Kochetkov for thowing his stick to make a save.

Ottawa was 0 for 4 on the power play and slipped to 0 for 18 on the power play in its last five home games.

Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov will be sidelined for the foreseeable future due to an upper-body injury, the team said.

OTTAWA, ON — Joseph Woll made 29 saves before leaving because of an injury midway through the third period and the Toronto Maple Leafs held on to beat the Ottawa Senators 4-3 on Thursday night.

Woll left after stopping a shot from Rourke Chartier.

Toronto led 3-2 at the time, and William Nylander made it 4-2 with 6:57 remaining.

Mitch Marner, David Kampf and Calle Jarnkrok also scored for the Maple Leafs, and Martin Jones stopped none of 10 shots in relief of Woll.

Josh Norris, Jacob Bernard-Docker and Claude Giroux scored for Ottawa. Anton Forsberg stopped 18 shots.

Jarnkrok gave Toronto a 3-1 edge 3:35 into the third period with a wrist shot, capped a run of three straight Maple Leafs goals.

But under two minutes later, Bernard-Docker made it a one-score game with his first career NHL goal on a point shot.

Nylander made it 4-2 with a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle, and Giroux finished the scoring on a one-timer with 1:53 remaining.

Ottawa was unable to complete the comeback after pulling Forsberg and having a power play for the final 50.3 seconds.

OTTAWA, ON — Brady Tkachuk and Vladimir Tarasenko each scored twice to lead the Ottawa Senators to an impressive 6-2 win over the league-leading New York Rangers on Tuesday night.

Anton Forsberg made 33 saves for the Sens, while Claude Giroux and Drake Batherson also scored for the Senators (10-10-0).

Artemi Panarin and K’Andre Miller scored for the Rangers (18-5-1), while Igor Shesterkin stopped 30 shots.

Trailing 5-2 to start the third period, the Rangers had a great chance to get back in the game with a two-man advantage for 85 seconds but failed to capitalize.

The Rangers came into the game with points in 17 of their last 19. They had chances throughout the night, but Forsberg was solid when called upon.

Trailing 2-0 after the first, New York looked to get back in the game and while they had a better second period in the end the Senators led 5-2 after 40 minutes.

Panarin had a power-play goal just 39 seconds into the second to make it 2-1, but Tarasenko regained the two-goal lead with his first in 13 games. Miller got the Rangers right back in it scoring 22 seconds later.

Ottawa made it 4-2 when Batherson buried a Tarasenko rebound. Blake Wheeler looked like he had a sure goal, but Jakob Chychrun batted it out of the air to help Forsberg out.

Tkachuk scored his second late in the period taking a rebound off the back boards and beat Shesterkin short side.

Tkachuk opened the scoring tipping an Artem Zub shot, and with just under two minutes remaining Giroux beat Shesterkin with a wraparound goal.

Ridly Greig returned to the Senators lineup after missing 10 games with a high ankle sprain.

OTTAWA, ON — The Ottawa Senators let their emotions get the best of them Monday night and they paid the price with the visiting Florida Panthers handing them a 5-0 beat down.

In a penalty-filled game that was highlighted by 10 players getting simultaneous game misconducts in the third period, the Senators showed their lack of maturity and discipline.

While the Senators hadn’t looked very impressive in the first 40 minutes and trailed 3-0, there was plenty of time to turn things around in the third until Zack MacEwen took a match penalty at the five-minute mark for going after Matthew Tkachuk.

From that point on there were a multitude of penalties, including Jake Sanderson dropping the gloves with Tkachuk.

Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk was in the middle of things as well and was largely responsible for the scrum that led to the misconducts.

“I mean, I don’t think it’s bad to play with emotion,” said Tkachuk. “I think, when this group plays with emotion we’re a tough team to beat and I think we rely on our emotion and it shows that we care, shows that we care about what we’re doing here and about the guy next to us.”

Senators head coach D.J. Smith didn’t disagree when asked if he felt his team showed a lack of maturity on this night.

“Yeah, yeah, that’s fair,” said Smith. “You know, I just thought at 3-0 we came up with some really good shifts. We were aggressive. We were, you know, in the game, lots of game left and then we take a five-minute major and that takes you right out of the game.”

Watching the unravelling of his team in the third was disheartening for Smith.

“As the head coach you realize you’re throwing away an opportunity,” he said. “You have to just keep playing. And, you know, I don’t know what went on between periods. We came out, I thought ready, and then you know that final whatever it was, after we took the five-minute major you don’t give yourself a chance to win and you can’t play like that in the NHL.”

From the start the Panthers looked like a team determined to win.

Sam Reinhart scored his first of two on the power play just 88 seconds into the game.

Ottawa had the perfect opportunity to respond when Reinhart was assessed a double minor for catching Tim Stutzle with a high stick, but Ottawa managed just one shot on goal.

The second wasn’t much better for Ottawa.

The Senators failed to record a shot on goal on an early power play and forced Joonas Korpisalo, who stopped 33 shots, to make a couple of big saves.

Korpisalo was beat by Reinhart, with a wraparound goal, after trying to clear the puck behind the net on the power play to make it 2-0.

The Senators challenged the goal for being offside, but after a lengthy review it was deemed onside and Sam Bennett went on to make it 3-0 on the ensuing power play.

“The first few special teams put us in a good position,” said Reinhart. “We came out with a playoff mentality, trying to get our power play going a little bit.”

Mixed in with the multitude of penalties in the third was a pair of goals by the Panthers from Carter Verhaeghe and Eetu Luostarinen to round out the scoring.

The win allowed the Panthers (13-7-1) to snap a two-game losing skid as they kicked off three straight road games within the division.

“It’s good that our power play, our special teams, in the end, won us the game,” said Panthers coach Paul Maurice. “Our goaltender made a couple of saves that he had to make to keep it right. But our penalty kill was as good as our power play tonight and that won us the game.”

This game was meant to be a measuring stick for the Senators and they failed to meet the challenge.

“We definitely fell tonight,” said Ottawa’s Claude Giroux. “But saying that, you know, sometimes the best way to learn is to fail really big so we can lose 3-2 and not learn from it. But you know, we lose the way we did (Monday) and we have to learn from it.

“So, we’re gonna stick together here. There’s no doubt we’re gonna come out and play hard on Friday. I think that’s when our next game is and, you know, we’re going to stick together no matter what here, so I’m not worried about that.”

OTTAWA, ON – The New York Islanders played 57 minutes of Friday night’s game with four defencemen and the Ottawa Senators still couldn’t beat them.

New York put a gutsy effort together to beat Ottawa 5-3 and deserved to leave with the two points.

The Islanders found themselves short-handed early on when both Adam Pelech and Sebastian Aho were injured after playing just two shifts, leaving New York to play the remainder of the game down two defencemen.

“That was an incredible effort,” said Islanders coach Lane Lambert. “We knew real early in the game what we were up against … I thought they did a good job of making sure they kept their shift as short as possible and I just thought it was an incredible effort by the four of them.

“I’ve never experienced that before where we’ve been down to four ‘D’ for pretty much the entire game.”

The Islanders (8-6-5) had contributions from all its players with five different goal scorers and 31 blocked shots.

Kyle Palmieri and Oliver Wahlstrom each had a goal and an assist. Mat Barzal, Anders Lee and Simon Holmstrom also scored. Semyon Varlamov stopped 29 shots.

“It was a lot of minutes for everyone,” said Noah Dobson, who played a team-high 31 minutes five seconds. “I think as a group everyone was aware and the forwards did a good job helping us out getting back and then we needed (Varlamov) to make some big saves and he did that.”

The Senators (8-8-0), who were playing their first game since returning from Sweden for the Global Series, failed to take advantage of the Islanders’ depleted lineup.

“You have to forecheck, you have to take the walls away,” said Senators coach D.J. Smith. “We did it for a stretch in the second period, but not enough and when we made mistakes, it ended up in the net.

“We just didn’t make it hard enough on them defensively.”

Drake Batherson scored a pair of goals for Ottawa and Tim Stutzle buried his fifth. Anton Forsberg made 21 saves.

The game was tied 1-1 after the first. Batherson opened the scoring with a power-play goal and Palmieri tied it after winning the battle for a rebound in front.

A wild second period saw the two teams combine for five goals.

The Senators appeared to take a 2-1 lead at the six-minute mark of the second, but it was called off for being offside. Wahlstrom scored almost immediately for New York to take the lead.

“It was a great call by our video staff … we knew the thing was offside for the period of time that it was in the zone and we were going to challenge if something came of it,” said Lambert. “We score after so certainly there was a momentum shift.”

The Islanders then went on to score a pair of goals in a span of six seconds. Barzal beat Forsberg with a wrist shot on the power play, and off the ensuing faceoff the Islanders took control and Lee scored to give New York a 4-1 lead.

“When they scored the 3-1 goal, it felt like we got behind, obviously,” said Forsberg. “And then I let in the fourth one, there. I should’ve had that one. It’s uphill from there. I’ve got to find more consistency and get a few saves there.”

The Senators replied with a pair of goals of their own, scoring 47 seconds apart on nearly identical plays.

Mathieu Joseph won a battle for the puck along the back boards and put it out front to Stutzle.

Joseph then won another battle and put the puck to the front of the net, where Stutzle made a little bump pass to Batherson for his second of the night.

Despite the strange turn of events, Stutzle thought his team would prevail.

“I was 100 per cent confident we were going to win that game,” he said. “There was never a doubt in my mind.

“Give credit to their goalie, he made some huge saves.”

The Islanders took a two-goal lead early in the third on Holmstrom’s goal, which went off Ottawa’s Vladimir Tarasenko.

The Senators had a last chance to get back in the game when Barzal took a slashing penalty and Ottawa pulled Forsberg for a two-man advantage, but Varlamov was solid.