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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.
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.
