Hammond hangs on to earn win against the Sabres
Senators rally from a 2-0 deficit to pick up 2 key points against Sabres
The “Hamburglar MoJo” provided just enough magic to counter the “Trap Game Effect” Friday night at the Canadian Tire Centre.
It was a game that was in doubt until the third period. As head coach Dave Cameron said about his team “they were way too cute early on and weren’t doing the work. To be honest, tonight’s game played out the way I thought it would. Credit to them, they found a way to get two (points).
“They came out in the third and gave a good push back.”
Despite knowing what they needed to do, the Senators allowed the worst team in the league to take a 2-0 lead after the first period for only the 14th time all season. Ottawa failed register a second shot on net until almost halfway through the first.
In addition, two relatively bad goals dented the Ottawa net and the Hamburglar’s reputation. The first was scored by the relative unknown, Philip Varone, who tapped in a bouncing puck that shorthopped Andrew Hammond. Adding injury was the fact that former Senator André Benoit picked up an assist on that opening marker.
“I was just trying to fight myself mentally and get in a groove. There weren’t a lot of opportunities to make saves. When it’s like that it’s hard to get a feel for the puck,” Hammond said after the game.
The second Buffalo goal was a snapshot from the Sabres leading scorer, Tyler Ennis, who snuck one in from a bad angle. It could have easily been 3-0 after the first as Ennis rang one off the right post moments later.
Friday’s game was the fourth meeting of the two longtime rivals this season with Ottawa having won two, one on the road and one in Ottawa, and Buffalo winning one at home.
Buffalo’s starting goalie was the gigantic but usually sieve-like Anders Lindback. He was in goal because the Sabres new No. 1 man, Chad Johnson, was hurt in practice Friday morning. Lindback proceeded to shut out the Senators in the first, bringing up memories of his last win over Ottawa Jan. 13 in Dallas when he was a member of the Stars.
Just before Ennis scored Lindback made a seemingly miraculous stop on Matt Puempel, flicking the puck away from a certain goal. But things changed at the top of the second with the captain coming through with his 16th goal, and 50th point, of the year. Erik Karlsson, from Milan Michalek and Mark Stone, scored at 26 seconds. The captain now leads NHL defencemen in scoring.
“We all knew we were going to be tired coming home. We obviously didn’t get the start that we wanted. We just told ourselves to stick with it, we knew we were going to grind them down” and it worked out, Karlsson said.
“He (Hammond) has been bailing us out quite enough, it was time we paid him back,” Karlsson said with a nod to the goalie. “I think everybody is feeling pretty good about the way we are playing right now. Guys are finally realizing that this is what we are going to have to do as a team right now” to be successful.
Up next, the Calgary Flames on Sunday night.
The third period proved Karlsson’s point as it started with a dominating shift by the Mika Zibanejad line with No. 93 finishing off a slick passing play from Mike Hoffman and Bobby Ryan for his 17th of the season.
The Senators had clearly found their legs and they started to get the Sabres running around. The result: Stone’s 16th of the season as he jammed the puck past Lindback.
Even then, there were some nervous moments before the final buzzer sounded.
With the win the Senators are three points out of the final wild card spot held by Boston and have games in hand on both Philadelphia and Florida who are also chasing the Bruins.
Boston plays Philly Saturday and Detroit on Sunday. It is conceivable that after Sunday night Ottawa could be three back with a game in hand before the Bruins come to town Tuesday for what now looks like the most meaningful regular season game played at the Canadian Tire Centre in the past two seasons.