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 On Monday night against the San Jose Sharks, that meant scoring on a
controversial penalty shot late in regulation, killing a penalty in
overtime and scoring the only goal in a shootout.
Center Mika Zibanejad converted in the tiebreaking competition while
goalie Craig Anderson denied three San Jose shooters, and Ottawa
beat the Sharks 4-3 at SAP Center.
"A big two points, that's what it's about this time of year," Ottawa
coach Dave Cameron said. "It's finding ways to get points."
Anderson denied center Joe Pavelski, right winger Joonas Donskoi and
center Logan Couture in the shootout.
"We had plenty of opportunities to win that game at different
points," Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. "Have to give their goalie
credit. He came in here and was the first star."
The downside to the Senators' night was losing their leading
goal-scorer early in the second period when left winger Mike Hoffman
crashed into the San Jose Sharks' goal.
Hoffman slowly skated off and into the locker room after getting
shoved by San Jose defenseman Justin Braun into the left post at
5:40 of the middle period. It appeared Hoffman struck the post
head-first between his neck and right shoulder.
Hoffman, who has 20 goals and 36 points in 42 games this season, did
not return.
The key moment in terms of the result occurred late in the third
while the Sharks were on their only power play of regulation after
center Logan Couture and left winger Matt Nieto struck earlier in
the period to give the hosts a 3-2 lead. Defenseman Brent Burns
tripped a breaking Zack Smith, and the Ottawa center was awarded a
penalty shot that he converted to tie the game at 14:29.
"We had a grade-A chance right down the pipe, missed the net, it was
a 50-50 puck," DeBoer said. "We probably should have had some other
people working back. It was a group thing."
Smith's ninth goal of the season withstood a lengthy video review to
determine if he stopped moving the puck during the penalty shot.
"I didn't feel like deking was in my repertoire," Smith said. "I had
that planned. I thought it was good. There was never any doubt until
they said they were going to review it."
In overtime, Ottawa right winger Bobby Ryan tripped Burns at 3:08 to
give the hosts just their second power play of the game, but the
Sharks failed to score despite putting four shots on net.
"I can't fault our effort, I thought we showed up ready to play and
earned two points," DeBoer said. "We did a lot of things right. I
think nine times out of 10 you win that game when you play that
game."
Couture's second goal of the season at 2:47 of the third, on a shot
across his body from the slot, and Nieto's nifty backhander at 7:54
off a great feed by Donskoi erased a 2-1 deficit after 40 minutes.
"We took it to them, spent most of the period in their end, and
that's why it's so frustrating," Couture said. "We were in complete
control of the game."
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Nieto added, "We established our game and played the way we wanted
to. That's hockey. We've been playing great hockey lately. We'll
take the point and move on."
The teams traded goals scored only eight seconds apart in the second
period.
The Senators jumped out to a 2-0 lead at 4:08 when it took Ryan only
11 seconds to convert the only power play through the first 40
minutes. Ryan's wrist shot tipped off the blade of Burns' stick past
San Jose goalie Alex Stalock.
The hosts struck back in quick fashion, however. After winning the
draw at center to restart play, Burns dished to center Joe Thornton,
who in turn spotted left winger Tomas Hertl charging to the net on
the weakside. Hertl redirected Thornton's perfect feed past Anderson
at 4:16.
Ottawa scored the only goal of the opening period thanks to an
over-aggressive move by Stalock, who charged from his net to try and
poke check Max McCormick. The Senators left winger punched a shot
between Stalock's pads at 11:12.
"We had some momentum and got the lead and then in the third they
stepped it up a notch," Anderson said. "They took momentum from us
and they were playing with some good pace. Luckily our
(penalty-kill) was working hard and able to generate a scoring
chance which generated the penalty shot."
NOTES: With 14 assists in his past 15 games, Sharks C Joe Thornton
passed Stan Makita (926) for 17th place on the all-time assists
list. Larry Murphy is 16th with 929. ... Ottawa D Chris Phillips
(back) and LW Clark MacArthur (concussion) remain out. A lower-body
injury prevented Senators D Marc Methot from playing Monday. ... San
Jose LW Dainius Zubrus continues to battle an upper-body injury,
while RW Raffi Torres remains with San Jose's AHL affiliate on a
conditioning assignment. ... Ottawa completes a five-game road trip
Thursday at New Jersey. ... San Jose next plays at Arizona on
Thursday. ... C Ben Smith and D Matt Tennyson were San Jose's
healthy scratches, while D Jared Cowen and LW Shane Prince did not
dress for Ottawa.
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