SENSNEWS

The losing streak is over, Senators fans! Tim Stützle finished the game with his second overtime winner this season! The Senators gave up yet another third-period lead in this one, but the team found a way to come through when it mattered. Check out below for an entire recap of tonight’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins

Ottawa Senators Game Recap

First Period Recap

The Ottawa Senators were back on home ice tonight after the completion of their western road trip. Erik Karlsson was back in the building tonight for his first game as a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins. After blowing leads in back-to-back games, the Senators were going to need a 60-minute effort if they wanted to best the Penguins.

The Senators started off on the right foot with some good play in the opening minutes of the game. An extended early 5-on-3 opportunity was gifted to the Penguins after Ottawa was penalized for too many men just 30 seconds into the penalty kill.

The struggling Senators penalty kill was going to have to come up big against the Penguins, and they did so effectively.

With the penalty kill keeping the team afloat, the momentum had swung in favour of the Senators. The play went back and forth until Jakob Chychrun (6) broke the tie just over 11 minutes into the first!

Claude Giroux (17) and Josh Norris (8) picked up the assists on the play, and the Senators were feeling good with a 1-0 lead!

The Senator’s penalty kill was put back to work shortly after this goal, and they were beaten by a poor Penguins power play. Lars Eller evened the score back at one with his fourth goal of the season.

But Ottawa did not turtle after giving up their first-period lead. The following shift after the Penguins goal, Josh Norris (12) put the Senators back on top!

Norris made sure to do his best Tim Stützle impression by batting the puck out of mid-air to beat the Penguins netminder. Just 30 seconds after conceding to the Penguins, the Senators were back on top with a 2-1 lead!

The Senators would take this lead into the intermission. Ottawa would need to prepare for the Penguins to come flying out in the second period after giving up a frustrating goal.

Second Period Recap

Ottawa would come out flying to start the second period. The Senators looked energized and motivated to continue applying pressure on the Penguins. It didn’t take long until the Senators struck again against the defence of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Brady Tkachuk (15) snapped his cold streak with a goal to start the second period! Tkachuk’s goal came off of a beautiful backhand feed from Claude Giroux (18) to extend the lead to 3-1! Jakob Chychrun (18) picked up the secondary assist on the play for his second point of the game!

The goals started coming fast and furious, with an answer to the Tkachuk goal coming just two and a half minutes later. Rickard Rakell picked up his first goal of the season to bring the Pittsburgh Penguins back within a goal.

But after giving up a goal two and a half minutes after the Tkachuk goal, the Senators returned the favour with a goal of their own two and a half minutes after the Rakell goal.

Erik Brannstrom (2) finished off a scrambled two-on-one effort with Brady Tkachuk to give Ottawa their two-goal lead once again! Tkachuk (9) and Sanderson (13) picked up both the assists on the play.

Third Period Recap

The Ottawa Senators had given up consecutive third-period leads against the Arizona Coyotes and the Colorado Avalanche coming into tonight’s game. The Senators were looking to end this streak, but the team looked uncomfortable in doing so.

The Senators would be outshot 22-4 in the third period as the Penguins poured on all sorts of pressure. The Senators gave up a goal early in the period, leaving them 18 minutes to defend a one-goal lead.

It looked like they were going to be successful in doing so until the final minutes of the third period. Kris Letang tied up the game with just 2:26 remaining in the third period, erasing yet another third-period lead.

The Senators were headed to overtime for the third time this season after giving up several leads in the game. The Penguins controlled the puck early in OT, forcing the Senators and Anton Forsberg to defend against three all-stars. The Sens were successful in doing so, and they began looking for offence of their own.

The puck had entered into the Penguins zone, and Jakob Chychrun made an aggressive pinch to hold the puck in the offensive zone. Chychrun made a diving effort to knock the puck to Batherson, who fed it to Stützle just in front of the Penguins net.

Stützle (7) made a quick move to freeze the goaltender before firing the puck past him, securing the Senators win! Drake Batherson (15) was credited with the only assist on the play.