Category: HOCKEY

OTTAWA, ON — What a difference a week makes.

Last Saturday the Ottawa Senators were booed off home ice and captain Brady Tkachuk was criticizing the fan base, but this week the home crowd was on their feet cheering as the Senators left the ice following a 4-1 win over the Calgary Flames.

With the win the Senators (6-7-0) snapped a five-game losing streak on home ice and capped the week with four of a possible six points after winning two of their three games.

“Whenever you win it’s always a good feeling,” said Tkachuk. “Losing is never fun, so I think we’re getting there. We’re finding our game. We’re finding what makes us successful and we’re just going to keep the ball rolling and keep the momentum going.”

It was a team effort with Mathieu Joseph, Drake Batherson, Rourke Chartier and Travis Hamonic all scoring. Joonas Korpisalo was solid in goal stopping 24 shots.

“When you’re losing it squeezes you and I think I’ve talked about this that it’s been a real calming approach from Michael (Andlauer) and Steve (Staois) to just do what we do and get better a little bit every day,” said Senators head coach D.J. Smith. “I think it’s clearly bled into our team. Guys are a little more comfortable right now in their skin and just starting to play a little bit better.

The Flames (4-8-2) didn’t play poorly, but also weren’t able to capitalize on its chances which was the difference on this night. Blake Coleman scored the lone goal for Calgary.

Dustin Wolf, who made 34 saves, made his season debut for the Flames and kept Calgary in the game.

“It’s frustrating when you feel like the game’s right there for you,” said Coleman. “They made plays and there was nothing (Wolf) could’ve done on those, obviously. He gave us a great chance to be in this game. He played really well. We wish we could’ve got him his win today.”

The Flames controlled the play for much of the first period, but it was the Senators who struck first when Joseph tipped a Jake Sanderson shot in close.

Ottawa took a 2-0 lead with a power-play goal early in the second. Tkachuk tipped Jakob Chychrun’s shot and the puck went high but Batherson was able to bat it in as it came down.

Calgary cut the lead in half at the 15-minute mark on a two-on-one when Martin Pospisil fed a wide-open Coleman.

The Senators had a two-man advantage for 71 seconds late in the period, but failed to capitalize as Wolf made a number of saves.

“I think the American (Hockey) League is pretty different from the NHL,” admitted Wolf. “Those are some big men out there. It’s a lot tougher for myself to fight through screens, which I thought I did a pretty good job of tonight, but at the end of the day, I felt really good.”

The Flames were coming off a 5-4 shootout loss to Toronto on Friday, but had good energy and were keeping pace with Ottawa until the third.

“We scored one goal, and there were opportunities for us to finish in those first two periods, for sure,” said Flames coach Ryan Huska. “We have to find a way to score more, but it’s sticking with it, too. That’s a big thing.

“I thought the energy got sucked out of us after the (3-1) goal, for sure.”

Chartier made it 3-1 early in the third and the Senators couldn’t have been more excited for their teammate. Chartier’s last NHL goal was Oct. 18, 2018. The 27-year-old missed nearly two years of action due to concussions and was thrilled to finally find the back of the net again.

“After sitting out two years and I’d played and as much as I hoped and knew inside myself that I would get another crack, hopefully, you mean you never really know,” said Chartier. “Obviously, I would have liked to get it a few games earlier, but definitely worth the wait.

“I think this one probably feels even better than the first one. Hopefully I don’t have to wait as long for the third one.”

Hamonic added insurance with his first of the season at the five-minute mark of the period.

The Senators won’t play until Thursday as they head to Sweden to take part in the Global Series.

OTTAWA, ON — Elias Pettersson didn’t feel his Vancouver Canucks had their best showing Thursday, but that didn’t stop the fun of winning.

Pettersson had one goal and two assists, Ilya Mikheyev netted two goals and the red-hot Canucks defeated the Ottawa Senators 5-2. The victory extended Vancouver’s winning streak to five games as the team sits in second in the Pacific Division to the reigning Stanley Cup champion Vegas Golden Knights.

“This is a lot of fun, a lot of fun,” said Pettersson. “I mean we’re winning now. We’re playing good; most of the time, but I mean like today I don’t think we brought our best effort. I was not happy with my game, but we still found a way to win. I think that’s a strength we have now.”

With his three points on the night, Pettersson took hold of the NHL scoring lead (24 points) and is riding a seven-game point streak (five goals, nine assists).

Brock Boeser and J.T. Miller also scored for Vancouver (10-2-1). Casey DeSmith made 28 saves.

“We’ve got to make sure we play a 60-minute game. … It’s only like 13, 14 games in but teams are going to be ready for us so we’ve got to make sure we match that desperation,” said Canucks head coach Rick Tocchet. “Ottawa was desperate tonight and they played a desperate game.”

Drake Batherson and Artem Zub scored for Ottawa (5-7-0), which has lost three of its last four games and was coming off a 6-3 win over Toronto on Wednesday.

Anton Forsberg stopped 11-of-16 shots.

“That’s one of the hottest teams in the league and, I mean, I thought we outplayed them,” said Senators defenceman Jakob Chychrun. “For sure, it sucks, but we’ve just got to keep moving forward here.”

“Nobody in here likes losing and things haven’t been going our way.,” he added. “Nobody’s feeling sorry for us. We’ve got to dig deep here and keep working as a unit and get ourselves out of this hole.”

Boeser got Vancouver going early, scoring just 15 seconds into the game. However, it wasn’t called a goal until 48 seconds later when it was reviewed at the first stoppage of play.

Mikheyev made it 2-0 at the three-minute mark of the opening period after an Ottawa giveaway.

“You’ve got to be ready to play when the game starts,” said Senators head coach D.J. Smith. “We had a turnover on the first shift and it ends up in the net. We had a turnover when it’s 3-2 and there’s lots of clock left and it ends up in your net. Whether they’re bad bounces or whatever they are, you’ve got to take care of the puck.”

Batherson beat DeSmith with 1:45 remaining in the first to trim the deficit.

Zub, who returned to the lineup after a seven-game absence due to a concussion, tied the game 10:58 into the second period.

However, Miller restored the Canucks’ lead with 1:52 left in the middle frame. He took a drop pass from Phillip Di Giuseppe and went bar down to make it 3-2.

“I just think when you get off to a bad start like we did the last couple of years you feel like you’ve got to play catch up and you start doing out of character things and you start forming bad habits,” said Di Giuseppe.

“It’s definitely nice to come out and have the record we do and I think we can take a deep breath and not feel like we need to hit a home run on every play to win every game.”

The Canucks extended their lead in the third when Mikheyev scored his second of the night tipping in a Pettersson shot from the point 9:23 into the third period.

Pettersson rounded out the scoring firing in a one-timer on the power play with 6:32 remaining in the third.

OTTAWA, ON – Brady Tkachuk’s frustration was palpable after his Ottawa Senators absorbed a 6-4 loss against the visiting Tampa Bay Lightning on Saturday night.

Tkachuk and his teammates were booed off the ice and fans called for head coach D.J. Smith’s firing throughout the game.

The Senators (4-6-0), who are without five regulars in their lineup, have struggled going 1-5-0 in their last six games.

“Whenever you don’t win it’s frustrating,” said Tkachuk. “It’s frustrating the negativity from the outside. The constant booing and the bullshit kind of from the crowd tonight was frustrating, too.

“I understand they’re a passionate fan base, I understand, I love it, but when you face adversity you don’t turn your back on the guys out there. I mean, we’re playing hard. I know it’s frustrating right now, but it’s not like we’re giving up out there. We’re fighting to the very end. So, to be honest with you, yeah, it was frustrating tonight.”

The game was tied 1-1 after the first thanks to Tkachuk’s first goal of the night and Victor Hedman’s second of the season, but the Lightning scored three unanswered goals in the second to take full control.

Tampa’s Brayden Point, with three goals and an assist, and Nikita Kucherov, who had a goal and four assists, were impressive for the Lightning (5-3-3), who snapped a two-game losing streak.

“It feels good to help contribute offensively,” said Point. “Still out there for too many (goals) against, but it feels good to contribute offensively, that’s for sure.”

Just 32 seconds into the period, Point came down the wing and beat Joonas Korpisalo high. Four minutes later Michael Eyssimont battled his way through Jake Sanderson and Travis Hamonic and got a shot off to beat Korpisalo, who was pulled after allowing three goals on 20 shots.

Tampa took a three-goal lead late in the period when Anton Forsberg, who allowed three goals on 17 shots, lost sight of the puck and Point was able to just get it across the goal line.

“I just thought they came out harder than us in the first period,” said Smith. “They’re on the right side of the puck. We score first and their top players came to play today. The second period they took it to us and put a ton of O-zone time on us and we weren’t able to bounce back.”

The Senators, trailing 4-1 to start the third, showed they still had fight with Claude Giroux scoring his third of the season.

The Lightning regained the three-goal lead on Point’s third of the night, and then Tkachuk scored his second of the night on the power play to keep Ottawa in it. Kucherov made it 6-3 just 16 seconds later. Ottawa continued to fight back with Drake Batherson making it 6-4 with just under eight minutes to play, but the Senators came up short.

“It was a game of responses, to be honest,” said Lightning head coach Jon Cooper. “They get the first one and we came back and tied it and I thought that was big.

“And then we come out in the second and score early, and then when the game got a little hectic, I think Brady (Tkachuk) scored and we scored right after that and I thought that was big for us. Every time there was a little adversity for us, we responded and we pulled it on.”

Adversity has been difficult on the Senators and Smith admitted that maybe the accumulation of bad news lately has been compounding the issues on the ice as well.

“That’s probably fair to say,” Smith said. “We’ve just got to play. You’re young guys and just go out there and play the way you can play.

“Don’t read and don’t look at the standings and, you know, when this team plays loose and driving they can score, they can defend, they can do all these things. I think they’re just trying too hard.”

The Senators don’t play until Wednesday and will have plenty of time to ponder how to turn things around.

OTTAWA, ON – The Ottawa Senators lost more than just a game Thursday night.

The Senators, already missing three defencemen, dropped a 3-2 decision to the Los Angeles Kings and could be without two of their centres for a little while.

Ridly Greig suffered a lower-body injury early in the first period after he appeared to jam his right leg. Mark Kastelic left the game early in the second after he lost an edge and went down hard. He was also seen favouring his right leg.

Head coach D.J. Smith didn’t have an update but said they look to be doubtful for the next few games.

While the injuries were a factor, the Kings (6-2-2) did well to hold off the Senators after the home side cut the deficit to one.

“The mistakes we made that went in the net are just mistakes,” said Smith. “That isn’t talent base, that’s bad reads or not enough poise or what have you … for us to win games, you can use short-handed (play) as an excuse, but that ain’t going to fix anything. We’re gonna have to be airtight defensively.”

Los Angeles (6-2-2) jumped out to a 3-0 lead en route to its second straight win on a four-game road trip. Philip Danault tallied from in close just 3:11 into the game to open the scoring.

“Scoring on the first power play clearly put us on our heels and then the injury to Ridly and Kastelic back-to-back,” said Smith. “We had some short lines and we had some tired guys … we stayed with it enough to have a chance at the end, but give them credit. They played really well.”

The Kings didn’t give the Senators much space and capitalized on their chances.

“The trust factor is high among linemates and pairs, the team as a whole,” said Kings head coach Todd McLellan. “We have a pretty good idea of how we need to play. Sometimes bounces don’t go your way, their second goal hits [Kopitar] in the face and a little bit of bad luck, but for the most part, I think we can play tight, uncomfortable games.”

The Kings took a 2-0 lead five minutes into the second period. Adrian Kempe picked up the puck at his own blue line, came down the wing and fed Carl Grundstrom, who beat former teammate Joonas Korpisalo, who stopped 35 shots.

Cam Talbot, who played for Ottawa last season, got the start in net for the Kings.

Los Angeles made it 3-0 midway through the second when Anze Kopitar was the beneficiary of an Andreas Englund rebound for his fifth goal of the season.

“That was a good game from our side tonight,” said Kempe. “Obviously they came back at the end and it was tighter than we wanted it to be. But I think we’ve had some games this year where it’s been a one-goal game at the end of the second period and I think we’ve been doing a really good job of that.

“Every line is managing the puck really well.”

The Senators got on the board with a late Dominik Kubalik power-play goal to make it 3-1 after 40 minutes.

The late goal provided some optimism for the Senators going into the third.

“I think we would have liked to have been a little sharper in the second period and be a little bit more mature,” said Ottawa forward Josh Norris. “But we had a couple guys go down and guys had to step up and play some bigger minutes.”

The Senators made it a one-goal game when Norris tipped a Jacob Bernard-Docker shot early in the third, but couldn’t produce the equalizer.

“I don’t think the game was a bad game by any means,” said Ottawa defenceman Travis Hamonic. “But those are the close ones that you do need, especially at this time of year because they all matter and it matters at the end.”

OTTAWA, ON — On a night meant to recognize excellence in netminding, the Buffalo Sabres’ 6-4 victory over the Ottawa Senators at the Canadian Tire Centre did anything but.

The evening began with a ceremony honouring former Senators goaltending great Craig Anderson — who signed a one-day contract earlier Tuesday to officially retire as part of the Ottawa franchise — and ended with a flurry of goals that brought the game total to 10.

Anderson, who now serves as a hockey liaison with the visiting Sabres, watched Buffalo cruise to a 5-1 lead after two periods before almost letting it slip away.

Jeff Skinner had two goals and Tage Thompson, Zemgus Girginsons, and Alex Tuch added singles as the Sabres chased Ottawa starter Anton Forsberg after two periods. Sabres goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukonen made 34 saves for the win.

Joonas Korpisalo came in to make six saves in the third on what should have been mop-up duty, but the Senators had other plans.

A furious rally in the dying minutes brought the score to 5-4 with 35 seconds remaining, but Thompson’s second goal — this one into an empty net — put an end to the contest and a forgettable night between the pipes.

Jakob Chychrun scored in the second period to make it 3-1 and give his team a brief pop of momentum, but it wasn’t until the final five minutes of the game that the Senators really put the pedal down.

Vladimir Tarasenko, Josh Norris and Mathieu Joseph all scored to put a scare into the Sabres, but that’s as close as they would get.

Senators coach D.J. Smith said he would have liked to have seen more from Forsberg, who was 2-0 with a .933 save percentage heading into this contest, but he was careful not to place all the blame at his goalie’s feet.

“I thought it was a weird one,” Smith said after. “I mean, every chance they had early went in. There were some tips there but we have to do a better job boxing out. Obviously, you want better tonight.”

Senators forward Claude Giroux elected to focus on the positive.

“As frustrating as it is, we have 76 games left,” he said. “It’s not time to hit the panic button, but it’s time to keep working on our game, keep finding ways to be consistent for 60 minutes, and if we do that we’re going to start winning hockey games.”

The Senators appeared to be headed for a truly disastrous night when Brady Tkachuk left the game late in the third period on what appeared to be a light, routine collision with Sabres centre Peyton Krebs.

Tkachuk was immediately distressed, however, throwing off his glove and sprinting off the ice and down the hall to the Senators’ locker room.

The Canadian Tire Centre crowd let out a sigh of relief when Tkachuk returned for the third period.

Smith said Tkachuk was “fine” and had a stinger on the elbow, but he may miss time regardless.

Tkachuk took an instigator penalty in the final five minutes of the game after he took exception to a hit by Tuch and thus faces the possibility of a suspension.

The Senators can appeal, however.

“I know what the rule is for — I don’t see that situation at all,” said Smith “I saw a guy that went out of his way to hit him dirty and he sticks up for himself, so the league will make that call and let us know.”

For their part, the Sabres were willing to look past the late-game fireworks.

“I thought we played simple,” Tuch said. “I thought we frustrated them throughout the whole game. I thought we capitalized on some opportunities, but we played really hard.

“I thought we came in with our game plan and we stuck to it. I know there was a little chaos in the end there, a couple penalties and power plays and stuff, but you know what, I thought (Luukkonen) played really well and it was a good team win.”

OTTAWA, ON – Alex DeBrincat didn’t anticipate being welcomed back with open arms by Ottawa Senators fans Saturday afternoon.

The Detroit Red Wings forward got exactly what he was expecting.

Senators fans gave DeBrincat the gears, routinely showering him with loud boos. But that didn’t stop Detroit from earning a 5-2 win over Ottawa.

The contest was DeBrincat’s first in the Canadian capital since being dealt to Detroit this summer. The hometown gathering of 18, 834 made sure to let DeBrincat know it wasn’t impressed that he didn’t want to be a part of the Senators moving forward.

“It’s pretty much what I expected,” said DeBrincat. “I think it is what it is.

“You try to, you know, zone it out and just play the game. We’re happy we came up with the win and it’s a tough team to play on the road . . . it’s a big two points for us.”

Joe Veleno scored twice while Dylan Larkin added a goal and two assists for Detroit (4-1), on a four-game win streak after dropping its season opener to New Jersey. Shayne Gostisbehere and David Perron also scored while Ville Husso was solid in goal, stopping 35 shots.

Jake Sanderson and Ridly Greig scored for Ottawa (3-2-0), which had its three-game win streak snapped. Joonas Korpisalo made 18 saves.

While many want to portray DeBrincat, who spent just one season in Ottawa, as the villain, the reality is the 25-year-old never thought he had a long-term future with the Senators. He’s thrilled to have the opportunity to play in his hometown team.

“They have a great team in there,” he said. “But you know, I’m happy with where I am.

“I know they’re going to be good for quite a long time so it’s going to be a lot of battles between us.”

DeBrincat had no points but was on the ice for all three of Detroit’s power-play goals. The Red Wings were 3-for-5 with the man advantage, while Ottawa was 1-for-6.

“Definitely not the effort we want, ever,” said Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk. “I don’t think that will happen again.

“We’re in the same boat, but they just showed that they’re better than us today. That’s frustrating, disappointing and we’re just going to have to learn from it.”

Ottawa outshot Detroit 14-3 in the first period but the two teams were tied 1-1, each scoring on the power play.

Sanderson opened the scoring, converting a nice pass from Tkachuk. But with less than two minutes remaining, Larkin found Gostisbehere in the slot to make it 1-1.

Detroit made the most of its opportunities in the second to take a 3-1 lead.

Veleno made it 2-1 on a nice Christian Fischer drop pass. Detroit followed with its second power-play goal when Perron took the puck off his skate and still got enough on his shot despite Erik Brannstrom being on him in close.

Korpisalo took some of the blame for that but he didn’t get much support on this night.

“They scored on almost every chance they got there,” said Korpisalo. “They were on the (power play) quite a bit. … I’ve got to provide the team with more saves.”

But Ottawa head coach D.J. Smith his team also must be more disciplined.

“They’re not great penalties; they’re stick penalties, they’re some lazy penalties,” he said. “We did such a good job the previous two games in staying out of the box and (Saturday) it killed us.”

Detroit put the game away with two goals within the first seven minutes of the third.

The Red Wings registered their third power-play goal just 28 seconds in when Larkin scored. Then Veleno recorded his second of the game on a great pass from Daniel Sprong.

“It was obviously two great players that made two awesome plays for me,” said Veleno. “You know, I was happy I was able to be in the right spot at the right time and essentially just keep working hard.”

Greig got his first of the season when his shot bounced in off Husso’s blocker. But he was more concerned with his team’s poor played.

“Both our power play and penalty kill need to be better, I’ll leave it at that,” said Greig. “The discipline in our game has probably got to be better.

“Lazy penalties can cost our team quite a bit.”

OTTAWA, ON – After 270 days out, all is well for Josh Norris.

The Ottawa Senators centre returned to the lineup Wednesday night after missing all of training camp and the first three games of the season, and scored a power-play goal 12 minutes into the game.

That first-period goal proved to be the winner, and he added another in the second to lead the Senators to a 6-1 win over the Washington Capitals for their third straight win.

The road back to the game has been a difficult one for the 24-year-old Norris. He played just eight games last season because of shoulder problems that started early in the season and eventually underwent surgery in January.

“Obviously, it’s been a long road and some long days and we’re finally here now,” said Norris. “So, I think it’s kind of one of those moments. It’s weird, like, I think God’s pretty amazing and I don’t want to get like too philosophical here, but yeah, it’s just a great night and happy we won.”

Norris was anxiously looking forward to this season, but at the start of training camp the team announced he had tweaked his shoulder and would be wearing a non-contact jersey. At the time the team downplayed the issue and said Norris would play in the pre-season.

Norris never suited up for an exhibition game, however, and when he wasn’t ready for opening night there was much speculation as to what was holding him back.

After the game, Norris admitted he needed some extra time and reassurance before deciding he was ready to return to action.

“I mean, I think, just after, you know, talking to some (doctors) and making sure everything was OK, and I think most importantly, just feeling comfortable in my own brain,” he said. “Once I kind of got the OK, it’s just, you know, trying to trust yourself. It took a little bit of time and then you know, just started to feel normal.”

As excited as Norris was to be back, his teammates were equally thrilled.

“He did what he gets paid for and put it right in the back of the net,” said linemate Drake Batherson, who set Norris up for both goals. “Super pumped for him and his family. For him to get back out there tonight, I know how excited he was. He was just happy to play, let alone get two.”

Vladimir Tarasenko, Artem Zub, Claude Giroux and Jake Sanderson also scored for the Senators (3-1-0). Anton Forsberg made 23 saves.

The Capitals, playing their first road game of the season, started off strong in the first period, but some poor defensive coverage in the remaining 40 minutes proved too much to overcome.

“In the first period, I liked our game a lot,” said Capitals coach Spencer Carbery. “I thought it was probably our best 20 minutes of the season thus far. We’re down 2-1, but I didn’t think that was an issue from a score standpoint, being able to come back in the game.

“Then the second period, sort of a microcosm of how the year is going for this group right now. Every mistake we make is ending up in the back of the net.”

John Carlson scored the Capitals’ lone goal. Darcy Kuemper stopped 23 shots for Washington (1-2-0).

The Senators took a 2-1 lead in the opening period.

Tarasenko opened the scoring four minutes in after taking a pass from Ridly Greig to beat Kuemper, but it was Norris’ power-play goal midway through the period that brought the crowd to its feet.

“He went through a lot and, you know, a lot of bad days,” said Senators coach D.J. Smith. “I know how emotional he was when he got hurt. To get to this point and get a couple goals here tonight, he just wanted to contribute. It was great.”

The Capitals cut the score in half with a late goal when Carlson beat Forsberg through traffic.

Three goals in the second period were the difference for the Senators.

Norris picked up his second by beating Kuemper glove side two minutes in. Zub scored with a shot from the blue line three minutes later and Giroux picked up his first of the season after some poor coverage allowed him to drive to the net uncontested for an easy tap-in.

“It’s too early in the year to panic too much,” said Washington’s Trevor van Riemsdyk. “It’s just a learning experience, but we’ve got to take from it what we did wrong and improve on it. We can’t just chalk it up as unlucky bounces or whatever it may be.”

Washington managed just three shots on goal in the third, while Sanderson rounded out the scoring for the Senators with his second of the season.

OTTAWA, ON – It’s only the third game, but the Ottawa Senators are playing the kind of hockey they talked about before the NHL regular season started and it’s reaping rewards.

Led by a two-goal, three-point night from captain Brady Tkachuk, the Senators were able to produce a 5-2 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning Sunday night.

“Two games of playing our type of hockey,” said Tkachuk. “That’s just been our goal. We don’t care about wins or losses, it’s just how quickly we get to our game. I think we’ve shown that we’re starting to find it now, and I think we’re going to keep building on it.”

The Senators are also getting contributions throughout their lineup.

Mathieu Joseph, Vladimir Tarasenko and Tim Stützle also scored, while Joonas Korpisalo picked up his first win and point with the Senators (2-1-0) after making 22 saves.

“Winning is exciting,” Tarasenko said. “We had a lot of talks before the season. When you win, everything is different. Like, the mood is different, you know, the atmosphere and confidence level.”

Both teams had played Saturday with the Senators beating Philadelphia 5-2, while Tampa fell 6-4 to Detroit and had a slow start.

Tampa started 29-year-old rookie Matt Tomkins, who made his NHL debut stopping 33 shots. Anthony Cirelli and Tanner Jeannot each scored for the visitors.

The Senators outshot the Lightning 17-3 in the opening period, but Tampa coach Jon Cooper didn’t feel like his team was being outplayed despite the discrepancy in shots.

“People are going to sit there and look at the first period and say oh my god, they just have 17- 3 or whatever it was, but we’re looking at chances that actually have a chance of going into the net and pucks I guess directed at the net that have a chance, but we didn’t feel like we gave them a whole lot.”

Tomkins weathered the onslaught and looked solid.

“(Tomkins) was unbelievable,” said Cirelli. “You know from the first puck drop he made huge saves and kept us in that game the whole game. Huge credit to him the way he came in here and he made saves and played really well.”

For the third straight game Ottawa opened the scoring. Seven minutes into the period Ridly Greig backhanded a pass back to Tarasenko who beat Tomkins from down low.

Tampa tied the game in the opening minute of the second after Cirelli crossed to the front of the net uncontested and roofed a shot over Korpisalo.

Tkachuk scored his first of the night midway through the second. Darren Raddysh blocked Tkachuk’s shot and dropped allowing the Senators captain to grab the loose puck and make it 2-1. Tampa tied it at the 13-minute mark when Jeannot capitalized on a Victor Hedman rebound in front.

“The two goals they score, we give them tap-ins there,” said Ottawa coach D.J. Smith. “And that’s hard for a goalie sometimes, but give our guys credit, give the (defence) credit, we came out ready to play, we held the chances down, but certainly we have to manage those big-time breakdowns.”

But with just under a minute to play in the second Nick Perbix looked to drop a pass back, but was picked off by Tarasenko who fed Joseph, who wasted no time wristing a shot to the top corner.

“It was just a tough goal to give up with a minute left and we had tired D out there and again, they catch a break,” said Cooper. “You know, they try and force the puck in, we got a stick on it and it goes right to Joseph and it’s in the net.

“Tkachuk’s goal (Raddysh) blocks it and it goes right on his stick, but we put ourselves in those situations and they capitalized so you know good on them for that.”

Tkachuk came up big in the third to give the Senators some breathing room when he beat Raddysh in a foot race and scored five-hole. Stutzle also added an empty-net goal, with Korpisalo picking up the secondary assist.

OTTAWA, ON – Brady Tkachuk and Jakob Chychrun each scored twice, leading the Ottawa Senators to a 5-2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers in their home opener on Saturday afternoon.

Anton Forsberg made 19 saves and Jake Sanderson also scored to send the crowd of 20,011 home happy.

The Senators picked up their first win of the 2023-24 campaign after dropping their season opener in Carolina 5-3 on Wednesday.

Travis Konecny and Cam York scored and Carter Hart stopped 26 shots for the Flyers.

Philadelphia opened the season with a 4-2 win over Columbus Thursday night, but struggled to generate much against Ottawa.

Ottawa took a 5-2 lead early in the third with its third power-play goal of the game, with Claude Giroux finding Tkachuk on the doorstep for his second of the contest.

A pair of first-period goals by Chychrun gave Ottawa a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes.

Two minutes in Zack MacEwen found Chychrun to open the scoring. With the man advantage Tarasenko made a no-look pass to Chychrun in the right circle, and he beat Hart high stick side.

The Flyers cut the lead in half late in the period on a two-man advantage, with Konecky picking up a rebound in front to bury his third of the season.

The power play continued to reward the Senators in the second period as Sanderson beat Hart with a one-timer. The Flyers responded 18 seconds later with York taking a puck off the half wall to beat Forsberg.

With 5.1 seconds remaining in the second Giroux stripped Travis Sanheim along the boards and fed Tkachuk to pick up his first of the season.

Giroux was recognized before the game for hitting the 1,000-point mark last season. He spent 15 seasons with the Flyers after being drafted 22nd overall in 2006.

OTTAWA, ON – With the regular season just days away, Montreal coach Martin St. Louis was happy to see his team commit to the game plan and be rewarded with a 6-4 win over the Ottawa Senators.

The Montreal Canadiens had led the entire game, but in a span of 16 seconds watched as the Senators grabbed a 4-3 lead early in the third period.

“We could have let the game get away from us,” admitted St. Louis. “The guys showed confidence in how we play a team game.”

The Canadiens bounced back and scored three goals to wrap up the NHL pre-season with a 3-3 record.

Sean Monahan started the comeback tipping Mattias Norlinder’s shot to make it 4-4 and less than three minutes later Montreal won a battle along the boards allowing Rafael Harvey-Pinard to feed Cole Caufield for a one-timer, for what would prove to be the winner.

With two minutes remaining Arber Xhekaj scored his first of the pre-season, but it wasn’t initially called as it ripped right through the net.

“I shot it and it went under the goalie’s glove and I saw the net move back and the puck was behind the net so I was like it had to go in,” said Xhekaj after the game. “I was about to put my hand up, but everyone kept playing. It was pretty funny.”

Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky also scored for the Canadiens.

The Senators finish the pre-season with a 6-2 record, with both losses to Montreal.

Senators coach D.J. Smith said: “I thought we battled pretty hard. We played most of the second period and the remainder of the game with 10 forwards.”

Both Zack MacEwen (upper body) and Tarun Fizer (lower body) left the game.

Smith admitted they made some mistakes, but liked the effort.

Trailing 3-2 the Senators scored a pair of goals 16 seconds apart to take the lead.

Ottawa tied the game on Roby Järventie’s fourth of the season and seconds later Ridly Greig gave Ottawa the lead.

Montreal goaltender Sam Montembeault, who made 21 saves, wasn’t able to grab a bouncing puck and Jordan Harris failed to clear the puck giving Greig the chance to jam it home.

After the game Smith said he felt Järventie showed progress and had a good camp, but he was assigned to AHL Belleville Saturday night.

Parker Kelly and Dominik Kubalik also scored for the Senators, while Mads Sogaard stopped 32 shots.

Unlike Montreal, Ottawa opted to sit most of its regulars.

The Canadiens got off to a quick start scoring just 33 seconds in, when Slafkovsky scored on a Mike Matheson rebound, and must have felt like they were playing a home game with the ovation they received from the 17,601 on hand at Canadian Tire Centre.

Just over a minute later Montreal struggled to clear the puck in front and Kelly jumped in and roofed it over Montembeault.

Pezzetta made it 2-1 at the 14-minute mark with a wrister that beat Sogaard.

Near the halfway mark of the second Suzuki made the most of a turnover and extended the Canadiens lead, but once again the Senators were able to cut the lead back to one at 3-2.

A nice rush by Ottawa was capped by a great feed from Erik Brannstrom over to Kubalik who wasted no time and snapped it over Montembeault.

“(Brannstrom) made that play perfectly,” Kubalik said. “It was a great pass and I just tried to one-time it because sometimes when I’m thinking too much it’s not the right play so I’m just trying to shoot the puck as quick as I can and luckily it went in.”

Kubalik was acquired over the summer and has been a nice addition to the lineup.

“I felt like we had a pretty good game I would say,” said Kubalik. “The guys battled hard, which is what we wanted. The last couple minutes kind of slipped away, but overall I think a pretty good battle.”

OTTAWA, ON – Ottawa Senators goaltender Anton Forsberg says he feels good after returning from two major knee surgeries.

His play would seem to back up his words.

Forsberg made 35 saves in a tightly contested game as the Senators defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs 3-2 Sunday in the pre-season opener for both teams. It was Forsberg’s first game action since suffering medial collateral ligament tears in both knees Feb. 11 in a 6-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers.

“I’m happy to be back and I feel good. There was a lot of scrambling the first two periods trying to find my game again,” Forsberg said. “It took a period to calm down a little bit but it felt better the longer it went.”

“To be honest, from day one I was just happy that it was what it was,” Forsberg said of the knee injuries. “I kind of felt the whole time that it wasn’t hard because it could have been a lot worse, so I’ve tried to stay positive and I’ve worked towards this day. It’s tough because a lot of the time you’re here by yourself and not with your team, so that’s probably the toughest part.”

Tim Stutzle scored twice and Brady Tkachuk had the other goal for the Senators. Jake Sanderson chipped in two assists.

William Lagesson and Alex Steeves scored for Toronto. Keith Petruzzelli made 25 saves on 28 shots through two periods, while Dennis Hildeby turned aside all four shots he faced in the third.

The first two periods were almost mirror opposites of each other. The Senators had a 24-7 shot advantage and 2-0 lead after the first period. The Leafs outshot the Senators 17-4 in the second period and tied the game 2-2 before a late power-play goal gave the Senators a 3-2 lead after two periods.

“We just stayed with it and we had an opportunity to take a breath between periods and realize where we were going wrong,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said.

“I thought we got off to an excellent start, we had a good penalty kill early and a good power play got some momentum for us, then we took a couple of penalties in a row and their best players got rolling.”

Tkachuk opened the scoring for Ottawa with a power-play goal almost halfway through the first period. Tkachuk collected a rebound at the side of the net and tucked it past Petruzzelli for a 1-0 lead.

Stutzle increased that lead to 2-0 with a snap shot from the top of the circle at 18:01.

Lagesson beat Forsberg high to the stick at 9:32 of the second before Steeves scored from the slot on a power play at 17:50 to tie the game.

Stutzle scored his second of the game, this one on the power play, just 50 seconds later with a quick shot off the post and in past Petruzzelli.

“We had probably two good periods. The second period, they won the territorial battle, we turned too many pucks over, our line changes weren’t good and that’s something we discussed in between periods,” Senators assistant coach Jack Capuano said.

“Short training camp and as we get going we’ll emphasis more the little things that we need to.

The Senators finished 2-for-4 on the power play, while the Maple Leafs were 1-for-6.

OTTAWA, ON – Claude Giroux gave Ottawa Senators fans a night to remember Monday evening and a 3-2 win over the Carolina Hurricanes was just a small part of the celebrations.

With a goal and an assist in the first period, Giroux joined an illustrious group to reach 1,000 career NHL points. He then added the winning goal in the third period.

Giroux becomes the 96th player to achieve the impressive milestone.

“Yeah, I mean, I have a lot of family here right now,” said Giroux. “So, it’s special and my wife and my two boys are here and my parents and it was really cool.”

The 35-year-old entered the game needing two points to hit the momentous marker and took less than one period to make it happen.

Giroux picked up point 999 with his 33rd goal of the season at the five-minute mark of the period and number 1,000 came on an assist when he set up Tim Stutzle with under three minutes remaining in the period.

Captain Brady Tkachuk had a secondary assist on the play and motioned to his teammates to join him on the ice to celebrate the moment.

“Yeah, just trying to keep my emotions intact and you know, I knew it was going to happen that they were going to come all on the ice, but to actually happen it was definitely a little different, but it was special,” admitted Giroux.

Helping Giroux achieve the milestone on home ice was important for Tkachuk and Stutzle, who hold their linemate in high regard.

“Thankfully we did it in the first period,” joked Tkachuk. “So, for me, for the both of us, just to kind of contribute, just a little part of his unbelievable career. Honestly we’ve talked about it, it’s truly special for the both of us.”

Giroux scored his second of the night midway through the third to give Ottawa (39-35-7) a 3-2 lead, and the win, tying his career-high of 34 set in 2017-18.

Giroux credits his linemates for much of his success this past season and admits their youth has been invigorating.

“They’re a couple goofs and we have a lot of, I don’t know if I’m supposed to say that word, but you know, we have so much fun every day,” said Giroux. “They make me feel young. They give it to me pretty much every day, so I personally like it. So it’s fun coming to the rink every day.”

Mads Sogaard was impressive in a 27-save performance to ensure the victory. He made a couple big saves in the dying seconds to keep the lead intact.

“I think we just battled as a team,” said Sogaard. “We knew, unfortunately, this was the last home game of the year and we wanted to get it done for the fans.”

The Hurricanes (50-21-9), who had a game in hand, hold a one-point lead on the New Jersey Devils for first place in the Metropolitan Division, but failed to make the most of the opportunity.

“We started just terribly,” said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour. “Never really got going at all. Give the other team a lot of credit — they played a real good game. But we were just in quicksand.”

With the playoffs just over a week away the Hurricanes were disappointed with their effort.

“We weren’t playing with a lot of speed, we weren’t playing with a lot of aggression,” said Jaccob Slavin.

“I mean, we’re a puck-pressuring team, and when we did have the puck we weren’t doing what we normally do. We get it in deep, we forecheck, we grind them down low and we didn’t really have any grind time in the (offensive) zone today like we normally do.”

Trailing 2-1 to start the third Hurricanes’ defenceman Brent Burns tied the game with a power-play goal.

Carolina had a two-man advantage for 45 seconds midway through the period, but failed to capitalize. With time remaining in the second power play Stefan Noesen took a goaltender interference penalty and was given an additional unsportsmanlike penalty.

Giroux went on to give the Senators the lead scoring four-on-four.

Leading 2-0 the Senators had a goal called back early in the second when it was ruled offside and the Hurricanes cut the lead in half when Martin Necas dropped a pass back to Brett Pesce who beat Sogaard high.