Category: Sports

OTTAWA, ON – Ottawa Senators fans went home empty-handed after the final home game of the season as the Florida Panthers beat the home team 4-0 Thursday night.

The loss snapped Ottawa’s ( 32-42-7) four-game winning streak.

Carter Verhaeghe led the Panthers (58-17-6) with a pair of goals, while Sam Reinhart and Sam Bennett also scored. Spencer Knight picked up his second career shutout stopping 27 shots.

Filip Gustavsson made 26 saves for Ottawa.

With the top seed in the Eastern Conference already locked up, the Panthers rested a few of its starters including Jonathan Huberdeau, Aleksander Barkov, Claude Giroux, MacKenzie Weegar and Gustav Forsling.

Florida held a 1-0 lead to open the third, but thanks to a pair of goals scored 21 seconds apart, they led 3-0 by the two-minute mark of the third.

Bennett was able to jump on an Anthony Duclair rebound out front to make it 2-0 and moments later Eetu Luostarinen found Verhaeghe who roofed it over a sprawled Gustavsson.

Verhaeghe scored his second of the night midway through the period for his 24th of the season.

The Panthers had a great opportunity to extend their lead early in the second with a two-man advantage for 51 seconds, but they were unable to capitalize.

Florida kept coming, but Gustavsson was solid making a big save on Verhaeghe. At the other end of the ice, Knight was holding his own stopping Auston Watson on a great chance.

Bennett grabbed the puck from Drake Batherson at the goal line and passed it to Reinhart, who scored his 33rd of the season from the hashmarks to give the Panthers a 1-0 lead in the first.

Ottawa wraps up its season Friday against Philadelphia, while the Panthers close out the season in Montreal.

OTTAWA, ON – Mark Giordano is learning that playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs means having fans everywhere you go.

The noise was deafening as Giordano scored the overtime winner for a 5-4 victory over the Senators in Ottawa Saturday night.

“It was a pretty good crowd for us tonight,” said Giordano. “I thought there were a lot of Leaf fans in the building. Really good atmosphere — I’ve noticed that since I’ve been here, the atmosphere in away buildings. It’s pretty nice to know that wherever you play, you know you’re going to get that good buzz in the building.”

Giordano has been a nice addition for the Leafs and his teammates appreciate all he has to offer.

“I think he’s a huge part of our team,” said Michael Bunting, who had a goal and an assist. “He’s a veteran and he came in and had that veteran presence right away. He was the captain for a very long time in Calgary and then the captain in Seattle. He carries [himself] like that. He’s a great add and a great guy off the ice, and he’s playing unbelievable for us right now.”

Ottawa had its biggest crowd of the season, but the majority of the 18,655 on hand at Canadian Tire Centre were cheering for the Leafs.

The blue and white faithful had plenty to cheer for as Mitchell Marner scored twice with Kyle Clifford also scoring for Toronto (49-20-6). Erik Kallgren stopped 25 shots.

Tim Stutzle continues to impress in his sophomore season as the 20-year-old scored twice to hit the 20-goal mark for the first time.

Stutzle has six goals and seven assists through his last eight games.

He nearly won it in overtime, but Kallgren was able to make the save.

“He continues to get better,” said Senators coach D.J. Smith. “He’s playing against the league’s best and he’s not backing down. Again, he might be the best player out there, he’s one of them. There’s certainly some high-end players over there, but Timmy’s really coming.”

Michael Del Zotto and Dylan Gambrell also chipped in for Ottawa (28-40-7). Anton Forsberg made 36 saves.

Stutzle broke a 3-3 tie at the six-minute mark of the third, taking advantage of a terrible giveaway by Ilya lyubushkin to bury his 20th of the season.

Stutzle admitted he relished the challenge of playing the high-octane Leafs.

“[Auston] Matthews and Marner are some of the best players in the league so those are guys I love watching every night and watch the highlights every time and they make so many nice plays together and they play with so much confidence,” said Stutzle. “Those are two guys I try to mold my game after and playing against them I think gives me a huge push.”

The Leafs got off to a slow start, but more than made up for it when it counted.

Marner made it 4-4, scoring his second of the game at the midway mark of the period.

“We didn’t come out the way we wanted to,” admitted Marner. “We knew they were going to come at us fast and try to get behind us. They did a good job of that, but I thought the second period and third period there we kind of just took over and played the game we needed to. And we got the result we wanted.”

Trailing 2-0 to start the second, the Leafs came back to tie things 3-3 after 40 minutes.

Clifford opened the scoring in the frame for Toronto as he tipped Justin Holl’s shot for his first of the season.

Ottawa took a 3-1 lead midway through the second as Austin Watson fired a shot through traffic and Gambrell tipped it past Kallgren. The assist gave Watson his 100th career point in his 400th NHL game.

“When you actually take some time to think about it, it’s pretty emotional for me,” admitted Watson. “This game has given me a life that I don’t know if I deserve, but I’m here anyways. I can’t thank the Nashville Predators, Ottawa Senators and the league enough for, you know, it’s allowed me to live out my dreams, but take care of life outside the game as well. So I just have a lot of gratitude today.”

Despite trailing, the Leafs never seemed concerned they wouldn’t be able to get back in control.

“I thought for a bit there we were outworked and outcompeted,” said Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe. “From the time they made it 3-1, though, I thought our guys really dug in from that point on and we were really good.”

Toronto made it a one-goal game just over a minute later as Bunting was able to jam home a puck from in close and Marner tied the game late in the period as he one-timed T.J. Brodie’s drop pass from the top of the faceoff circle.

The Senators couldn’t have asked for a better start, jumping out to a 2-0 first-period lead.

On a two-on-zero rush, Brady Tkachuk passed the puck to Stutzle through the slot, who one-timed it home to open scoring.

Del Zotto made it 2-0 late in the period with a shot from the blue line that popped over Timothy Liljegren and in.

OTTAWA, ON – The Winnipeg Jets needed a reminder that the season isn’t quite over and they responded with a 4-3 win over the Ottawa Senators Sunday night.

The Jets looked like a disinterested team after the opening 20 minutes, but a harsh talking to seemed to do the trick to get everyone back on track.

“We got yelled at after the first,” said Paul Statsny, who scored the Jets’ third goal. It woke everyone up. We’ve been needing that for a while, so it was just good to have.”

Nikolaj Ehlers had a goal and two assists, while Pierre-Luc Dubois scored his 100th NHL career goal and Kyle Connor’s third-period goal proved to be the winner.

The Jets will be without Mark Scheifele for Monday’s game in Montreal. Scheifele suffered an upper body injury in the second period and will be re-evaluated in Winnipeg.

The Jets (34-28-11) likely would have ended up on the losing side of things if not for the play of Connor Hellebuyck, who made 31 saves.

Trailing by a goal late in the third the Senators pulled the goalie and Hellebuyck made some huge saves to keep this one from going to overtime.

“That’s probably the best we’ve looked six-on-five,” said Senators coach D.J. Smith. “We haven’t been very good six-on-five and we were dangerous and had chances. That’s why Hellebuyck is one of the best goalies in the league. If you get an average goalie in there we may get five or six tonight.”

SKIP ADVERTISEMENT
There was no denying who the best player of the night was in interim head coach Dave Lowry’s mind.

“That’s a goalie win,” said Lowry. “He gave us a chance in the first period. He legitimately was probably the only guy that started on time. He gave us a chance to get going and then he made some huge saves right at the end of the game for us, as well.”

Captain Brady Tkachuk led the way for the Senators (26-40-6) with a pair of power-play goals.

Josh Norris also scored, while Mads Sogaard, making his second NHL start, stopped 21 shots.

Tim Stutzle returned to the Senators lineup after missing the last two games, while Drake Batherson missed his third straight due to a non-COVID illness.

This was the first time Stutzle addressed the media since last week’s game in Montreal when he was hit by Nick Suzuki and later criticized by Brendan Gallagher.

“I respect (Gallagher) as a player, I mean everyone has their own opinion,” said Stutzle. “They can say what they want. I have my own opinion too, but in the end, like I said I respect him as a player. He’s a veteran player so that’s all I want to say about him.“

The Senators were coming off a disappointing 5-1 loss to the Rangers Saturday night and were anxious to redeem themselves.

“We really wanted those two points tonight and as you can tell we were fighting to the very last second,” said Tkachuk. “This one’s going to be a frustrating one, but we have to move past.”

Trailing 3-1 to start the third, Tkachuk scored a power-play goal in the opening minute, but Connor regained the two-goal lead with a Jets power-play goal of their own.

Tkachuk made things interesting, scoring his second power-play goal of the game with six minutes remaining. He whacked the puck out of midair and, following a lengthy review, the goal stood.

Tkachuk was a threat down low all game and has shown to be an effective net-front presence.

“I pride myself as that’s where I feel I’m at my best is around the net causing chaos with pucks landing and just be hungry and try and put them in the back in the back of the net,” said Tkachuk. “But all those plays don’t happen without teammates getting it there and making good plays around the net, shots, tips and we have a lot of guys who sacrifice in front of the net.”

After getting yelled at, Winnipeg jumped out to a 3-1 lead after two periods.

Dubois picked up his 100th NHL career goal on the power play early in the second when he took a pass right in front and beat Sogaard far-side.

Ehlers and Stastny had a beautiful two-on-one that finished with Stastny scoring his 19th of the season.

“I didn’t like our first period,” said Lowry. “I didn’t like our puck management, I didn’t like the pace that we were playing at, I didn’t like the (lack of) urgency in our game. To their credit, we had an answer in the second period and we did things in the second that we wanted to do at the start of the game.”

Despite being outshot 12-5 the Jets managed to come out of the first period tied 1-1.

Ottawa opened the scoring in the first two minutes when Brady Tkachuk dropped a pass back from below the goal line to Norris out front for his 32nd of the season.

The Senators did a good job keeping shots away from their young goaltender, but he didn’t have much chance on Ehlers’s goal. Ehlers looked to make a cross-ice pass, but it deflected off Victor Mete’s stick and skipped past Sogaard.

OTTAWA, ON – The Ottawa Senators were forced to settle for a single point after a 4-3 shootout loss to the Florida Panthers Saturday night in Ottawa, but knew they were lucky to walk away with anything.

The Panthers came in waves from start to finish and gave the 17,201 at Canadian Tire Centre a first-hand look at why they lead the Eastern Conference.

Florida trailed all game until Aleksander Barkov tied it late in regulation and went on to score the shootout winner.

Ottawa had an opportunity in overtime on the power play but just couldn’t beat Sergei Bobrovsky, who made 19 saves. At one point Senators head coach D.J. Smith had four forwards on the ice.

“If you’re a Senators fan that’s pretty exciting to watch Timmy [Stutzle] flying out there with scoring chances up and down,” said Smith. “It’s a coach’s nightmare, you want a little less than that, but as a fan these are the stars of the future. I remember Barkov when he was this age and he was a good player, but he isn’t what he is today.”

Trailing 3-2 the Panthers sent the game to overtime when Barkov scored the equalizer with 2:16 to play to complete the comeback.

“We just have the mindset that we’re going to come back no matter what,” said Barkov. “We played a good game even when we were down, nobody had one thought that we weren’t going to win this game.”

Anthony Duclair and Patric Hornqvist also scored for Florida (44-14-6), who are 8-1-1 in their last 10. Newcomer Claude Giroux had two assists.

In many ways Anton Forsberg deserved a better fate after stopping 46 shots for the Senators (23-36-6).

“That’s a really, really good hockey team,” said Smith. “But you know, we stayed with it long enough, we checked enough and Forsberg… let’s make no mistake [about] how good he was.”

Smith also said the team likely wouldn’t have played as well as it did without the support from the fans.

Ottawa had its biggest crowd of the past two years and the noise in the building gave the Senators momentum.

“This is probably the best lineup in the league,” said Forsberg. “Obviously that’s the teams you want to compete with and that’s the fun games to play so it was fun to be out there.”

Alex Formenton, Artem Zub and Dylan Gambrell scored in regulation for the Senators (23-36-6). Drake Batherson picked up an assist in his return after missing 28 games with an ankle injury.

The turning point seemed to come midway through the second.

Ottawa had taken a 3-0 lead early in the second on Gambrell’s goal and then the Panthers were able to get on the board with a power-play goal. Giroux found Duclair, who one-timed it for his 26th of the season at 8:55.

Just over a minute later Hornqvist carried the puck down low and backhanded it towards the net where Forsberg made the initial save, but Hornqvist was able to grab the rebound and pop it in at a very sharp angle.

Forsberg appeared to make an impressive behind the back save along the post, but after a lengthy review it was ruled the puck was in his glove behind the goal line to make it a 3-2 game.

Forsberg said in the moment he didn’t even know if the puck was in his glove, but then felt he had made the save and was somewhat surprised it was ruled a goal.

During his media availability Forsberg was shown a picture shared by the NHL and admitted they made the right call after seeing the closeup.

“I saw the monitor a few times and thought it was in,” said Panthers head coach Andrew Brunette. “Took longer than I thought it was going to take, but I guess they wanted to make sure.”

Despite being outplayed and outshot 19-8 the Senators held a 2-0 lead after the first period.

Formenton opened the scoring at 7:54 after winning a foot race and burying a shot under the crossbar.

Ottawa made it 2-0 when Zub picked up a Josh Norris rebound at the hashmarks and wristed a shot past Bobrovsky for his first on home ice this year.

OTTAWA, ON – For 40-some minutes there was a whole lot of nothing going on. How quickly things change.

Josh Norris scored the winning goal midway through the third period Friday as the Ottawa Senators defeated the Philadelphia Flyers 3-1 and snapped a three-game losing streak.

A slapshot from Norris beat Martin Jones at 9:16 for a 2-1 lead while the Senators were on the power play.

“I guess I just like that area of the ice and for some reason pucks just seem to go in,” Norris said, about the fact that most of his power-play goals come from the same spot.

“My job’s easy, the guys just slide me the puck and I shoot it and hope it goes in, and lately it’s been going in so it’s a good feeling.”

Tim Stutzle scored in the first period to give the Senators (22-34-5) a 1-0 lead and Anton Forsberg made 27 saves for the win, many of those big and in the dying minutes with the Flyers pressing hard.

Alex Formento iced the win when he scored shorthanded into an empty net from behind his own goal line with 2:38 to play.

The lone Flyers’ goal came off the stick of Cam Atkinson. Jones made 32 saves for the Flyers (19-31-11) in a solid but losing effort.

“Forsberg made some really, really good saves. Sometimes you have to tip your cap. I think it came down to execution,” Atkinson said, before turning his thoughts to his own netmnder.

“He played great for us. Their first couple goals were absolute snipes. He kept us in the game all night and gives us a chance to win. That’s what you need out of our goalies, and they’ve certainly been doing that for us as of late.”

Stutzle was a game-time decision after getting a little banged up in their previous game, but was excited to get in against the Flyers.

“Yesterday I didn’t feel real good and today I skated and it was ok so I was happy to be able to play tonight,” he said

“It’s always good to get a goal in the first period. I think the whole team was really good and we were all together. And what are you going to say about [Forsberg]. He was unbelievable again and he helped us win the game in the last couple of minutes. It was a great team effort.”

OTTAWA, ON – Trade deadline is a difficult time for a number of teams, but it appears to be weighing on the Ottawa Senators.

Ottawa (21-34-5) dropped its third straight game at home Wednesday in a 4-1 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets and both coaches and players admitted the March 21st deadline is casting a heavy shadow.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that haven’t scored in a long time,” said Senators coach D.J. Smith. “I don’t know if that’s to be expected. The guys that score, score and the guys that don’t usually check and then there’s some other guys that obviously tonight, this week can’t get over quick enough when it comes to the trade deadline. I think to get that out of some guy’s minds whether you know if you’re here or not. To me it looks like it’s weighing on a few guys.”

With the Senators well out of the playoff picture players know change is inevitable. The question is how much change will take place?

“I think maybe there’s some guys that it’s weighing on them a little bit,” admitted Ottawa’s Nick Holden. “It’s always hard when you’re on a team that everybody’s talking about and they’re maybe moving guys. Selling instead of adding, so it’s a tough time of year and I’m sure it’s in the back of guy’s minds for sure.”

The Senators could also be without its best defenceman. Thomas Chabot was hurt early in the second period after taking a hit from Sean Kuraly, who scored an empty-net goal. Chabot was hit along the boards, appeared to be favouring his right arm, and was briefly assessed when he returned to the bench. He went out for one more shift, but was clearly in pain and left the game.

Following the game Smith said “It looks like he’s going to be out a little bit,” and they would know more Thursday.

Columbus was solid right from the start, led by Jack Roslovic’s two goals. Eric Robinson also scored for Columbus (31-27-3), who have won their last three. Elvis Merzlikins, playing his 40th game, stopped 30 shots.

“It was kind of a weird game a little bit,” said Zach Werenski, who had two assists. “I thought we played well in the first. It’s a tie game after, but I thought we were patient. Elvis made some really big saves. We found some ways to score and to get a lead, and then we played with that lead I thought pretty well in front of [Merzlikins]. The puck was bouncing a lot tonight. Just a weird game. It felt weird out there.”

The Senators have struggled defensively of late and Wednesday was no exception. Ottawa has given up 18 goals through their last four games.

While losing Chabot was difficult, the Senators just seem to be struggling in their own end of late.

“I think we might be overthinking,” said Holden. “It’s like we’re a step behind. We’re waiting for the play to happen and then we’re reacting to it, whereas, say a month ago, when we were fast on pucks and fast on bodies everybody was just going, anticipating, getting in the right spots. Right now, we’re kind of just playing it slow not wanting to get beat anywhere, which is actually creating more space and they’re beating us.”

Two Columbus goals were a result of poor defensive play and Smith insinuated there could be lineup changes for Friday’s game against the Flyers.

The two teams exchanged goals in the first despite Ottawa not recording its first shot until the nine-minute mark.

Down in the low slot, Ennis opened the scoring midway through the period after redirecting a Chabot shot. Just over five minutes later a weak defensive effort by Nikita Zaitsev allowed Werenski to find Roslovic for a tap-in.

Columbus took a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes.

A bad line change early in the period allowed Werenski to feed a stretch pass to Robinson, who then stepped into the circle and fired a shot off the far post and in.

On Columbus’s third goal Zaitsev, who had a rough night overall, failed to tie up Roslovic in front and he was able to bury a Patrik Laine rebound.

“I’m trying to build that structured game and be able to make plays consistently,” said Roslovic. “Don’t turn the puck over, just make the right plays and be a good all-around player.”

OTTAWA, ON — There was a collective sigh of disappointment from the Ottawa Senators on Monday night following a 5-3 loss to the Arizona Coyotes.

It was hard to argue that the Senators didn’t deserve a better fate considering they dominated play for much of the night, but a couple of mistakes were the difference.

“I think there was a stretch over 20-some minutes that they didn’t have a shot and we’ve got to find ways to score and our power play can’t give up a shorthanded goal,” said Senators coach D.J. Smith. “We tie it in the third after having the puck the whole time and we make a real careless play and you lose the game.”

Give the Coyotes credit, they capitalized on their chances.

With just 15 shots on goal they didn’t generate a lot of offence, but when the Senators faltered they took advantage.

Tied 2-2 after the first period, the Coyotes took the lead when Lawson Crouse scored his third of the game, shorthanded, late in the second after taking advantage of a Senators giveway and winning a foot race for a loose puck to break in alone.

Ottawa tied things up at the seven-minute mark of the third when Connor Brown buried a Brady Tkachuk rebound, but 16 seconds later the Coyotes regained the lead as Nick Schmaltz took a pass in front and beat a sprawled Gustavsson.

The Coyotes (19-36-4) forward has 15 points in his last six games (6 goals, nine assists)

“Yeah it’s on the guys on the ice,” said Tkachuk. “It’s happening to our line in back-to-back games so we’ve got to learn from those and not let it happen again. The momentum was on our side and that completely deflates the group so as a line we have to buckle up in those situations and have to learn from that. It’s definitely frustrating.”

The Coyotes beat the Senators 8-5 nine days ago and have played well of late, but know this was not one of their better efforts.

“In that kind of a game, you can look at it two ways,” said Arizona coach Andre Tourigny. “You can look at our performance, and really, it was not very good. Let’s not kid ourselves. But you can look at it as well saying, even though it was not as good as we wanted, we found a way to stay with it. We knew we could win the game even if we did not play the way we wanted to.”

Crouse’s three goals were all scored differently, one at even strength, one on the power play and shorthanded. Barrett Hayton had an empty-net goal to round out the Coyotes scoring.

Scott Wedgewood made 40 saves to pick up his tenth win of the season.

“It’s a special feeling,” said Crouse. “I’ve said it in a few interviews now: You always want to be out there and try to make the biggest difference you can make. And to get my first hat trick tonight in front of some friends and family, it’s a really good feeling. To cap it off with a win makes it that much more special.”

Josh Norris scored twice for the Senators (21-33-5), while Filip Gustavsson, in his first NHL start since Feb. 20, stopped ten shots.

Norris looked dejected following the game as he met the media.

“I thought we deserved a lot better,” he said. “We did a lot of really good things and we’ve just got to take care of the puck, not give up a shorty and probably win the game so it’s frustrating.”

While Tkachuk often points out the team is still young and learning, on this night they were all held accountable.

“I think with our group, we don’t want to make any excuses whether young or old we just want to win,” he said. “Everyone wants to win and has the mindset of winning every single day. So yeah, we’re not gonna make any excuses or feel sorry for ourselves.”

An eventful first period saw the teams tied 2-2 after the opening 20 minutes.

Norris scored his first, jamming home a Tkachuk rebound. The Coyotes went on to take the lead when Crouse scored back-to-back goals. The first was a great shot high glove side and the second was on the power play as he tipped a Shayne Gostisbehere point shot.

Norris tied the game on the power play with his second of the night.