OTTAWA, ON – Jarome Iginla scored two power-play goals, Semyon Varlamov made 26 saves and the Colorado Avalanche ended a four-game losing streak by holding off the Ottawa Senators 4-3 at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday.
Iginla has 15 goals this season and 604 in his career, four behind Dino Ciccarelli for 17th on the NHL’s all-time list. The two power-play goals give him 186 in his career, tying him with Pat Verbeek for 22nd all-time.
Nathan MacKinnon also had a power-play goal for the Avalanche (28-25-4), and Blake Comeau scored into an empty net with 64 seconds left in the third period. Colorado had been 0-3-1 since the All-Star break.
Defenseman Dion Phaneuf, playing his first home game for the Senators since being acquired from the Toronto Maple Leafs on Tuesday, assisted on second-period power-play goals by Mark Stone and Mike Hoffman. Forward Chris Neil scored with 26 seconds left.
Andrew Hammond made 23 saves for the Senators (25-25-6), who lost for the second time in as many nights. Ottawa captain Erik Karlsson had two assists, giving him a League-high 51.
“It was a big win for us when it hasn’t been going our way,” Iginla said. “For them to come back and to make a very close game of it and to hold them off in the third period and play a good, smart game with the lead, it definitely feels good. Now we want to keep going.
“It is a weight off our shoulders breaking the bad slide. Now we’ve got to build upon this.”
Iginla had to sweat it out with four minutes to go and the Avalanche leading 3-2 when he was penalized for tripping in the offensive zone.
All the goals in the game to that point had come on the power play.
“Oh my gosh, I was dying over there,” he said. “That’s what you don’t want to do, go on the forecheck and give them a 200-feet-away penalty. That was a demonstration of what not to do. I was pretty nervous over there. It felt great to see them kill it. Both the power plays tonight were clicking. I was on edge.”
Avalanche coach Patrick Roy had confidence in his goaltender.
“That was a big moment in the game for us. Four minutes left in the game and we had to kill that one,” Roy said.
“[Varlamov] said, ‘Let me see the puck and I’ll be fine,’ and that’s what the guys did. He made a great save I think on Hoffman on that shot with the pad. They had a few good chances. They made a push in the third. That’s the way it is. They came back and we played well enough to hang on and win.”
Hoffman’s 24th goal of the season and the fifth power-play goal of the night, cut Colorado’s lead to 3-2 with eight seconds left in the second period. He took a pass from Karlsson, and his hard shot from the right point with Stone screening in front went over Varlamov’s left shoulder.
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Stone scored on the power play at 11:15 of the second to make it 3-1. Phaneuf earned his first point with the Senators when Stone deflected his shot past Varlamov.
Ottawa’s penalty-killing is ranked 30th in the NHL, but had shown signs of improvement lately, going 9-for-9 in the past the three games. That came to an abrupt end against Colorado.
“The goaltender has to be the best penalty-killer,” Hammond said. “Earlier on, we were probably making it a little bit tough on us, but with the adjustments we’ve made, I’ve felt like we’ve really kind of helped us out.
“Tonight it just seemed like they took advantage of a few situations and they were able to put the puck in the net.”
The Avalanche led 1-0 after the first period on Iginla’s first power-play goal at 9:16. Hammond came close to making a great save as he lunged back across the crease and got his glove on Iginla’s shot, but the puck trickled into the net.
The 38-year-old hadn’t scored in nine games and had one goal in his previous 14.
MacKinnon made it 2-0 at 2:26 of the second period. The Senators had a shorthanded chance, but Mika Zibanejad’s weak backhand was stopped by Varlamov and Colorado quickly counterattacked. McKinnon took a pass from Carl Soderberg and scored his 19th goal of the season.
Iginla scored his second of the game at 6:54 on a power-play one-timer to make it 3-0.
The Senators made a good push and were the better team at even strength, but they paid the price for their failure to kill penalties.
“I thought we did a good job sticking with it. We generated a number of chances and their goalie played well,” Neil said.
“It’s frustrating. These are points we need. We still believe in here. We still believe we can get to where we need to be to make playoffs. But you’ve got to win games to do that.”
Colorado plays at the Detroit Red Wings on Friday. The Senators visit the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday.
