THE BREAKDOWN: Senators battle back but come up short in 3-2 OT loss to Bruins
The Ottawa Senators made their point Thursday night and they probably deserved a better fate.
You have to give the Senators credit because they gave the best team in the East everything the Boston Bruins could handle, but came up short in a 3-2 overtime loss in front of a sellout crowd of 18,722 at the Canadian Tire Centre.
Brad Marchand scored the OT winner to secure the win for the Bruins.
Vladimir Tarasenko scored with 3:18 left in the first period when he beat Boston goalie Jeremy Swayman, top shelf on the power play while Thomas Chabot also chipped in with a goal.
“When you leave the rink today you know you gave them a battle,” Tarasenko said. “I thought we played well. This is one of the best teams in the league and there’s still room to improve but I thought we had a good effort.”
It was a hard-fought third period for the Senators. With 6:42 left in the game and Ottawa trailing by a goal, Josh Norris appeared to tie it up, but the officials ruled that Mathieu Joseph had made a hand pass.
“It was a fast play. I haven’t seen the replay so I don’t really know what happened. I just saw the puck in the air, I just tried to grab it and bring it in front,” Joseph said. “I don’t know if I touched the puck or not. I tried to for sure, I had a little bit of doubt that it was a hand pass at the time.”
The Senators returned home after road victories of the Philadelphia Flyers Sunday and Montreal Canadiens Tuesday. Ottawa came into this game with a 4-1-1 record in its last six games and it finally appears they’re playing the style of hockey that Martin expects.
After a standout effort in the 4-1 win over Montreal, Joonas Korpisalo made his second straight start in the club’s net. He wasn’t tested much in this one because the Senators played well in front of him.
The Senators power play went into this game 2-for-34 in its last 11 games and that’s not going to win you games. The club tried to make changes and Martin stated before the game he feels the players have to get their noses dirty more often.
“We haven’t had enough intensity,” Martin told TSN’s Claire Hanna during a timeout in the second. “We’re looking for a pretty play. We need to have more of an attack mode rather than just moving the puck.”
After not getting many looks on their first four power plays, the Senators got a timely goal on their fifth opportunity late in the second and then Tarasenko tied it in the third.
Chabot took a perfect no-look pass from Drake Batherson and beat Swayman with only 27.5 seconds to cut Boston’s lead to 2-1 going to the third.
