Senators end losing streak
BROOKLYN – Coming into the Barclay’s Center, the Ottawa Senators insisted they had to find a way to finally win a game.
Somehow. Ugly, pretty, it didn’t really matter much, just so long as they ended up with more goals than their opponent.
They got what they desperately needed in a wild, wacky, wide open 6-5 victory over the New York Islanders, putting an end to their miserable seven-game losing streak, in the process becoming the first team to defeat the Islanders at home in regulation this season.
But surely, nobody could have imagined anything quite like the game of shinny that broke out.
Ryan Dzingel’s second goal of the game, on an early third period power play, broke a 5-5 tie. Rookie defenceman Thomas Chabot, who scored his first career goal earlier in the game, assisted on the Dzingel goal, completing a three-point night.
By that point, both starting goaltenders – the Senators’ Craig Anderson and the Islanders’ Thomas Greiss were long gone, replaced by Mike Condon and Jaroslav Halak, respectively.
Condon, who picked up the win in relief, made a superb pad save off Andrew Ladd with nine minutes remaining to preserve the Senators 6-5 lead. He was also outstanding in the final minute as the Islanders pushed hard to try and tie the game.
The Senators, who held leads of 2-0 and 3-2 and trailed 4-3 and 5-4, also received goals from Zack Smith, Ryan and Hoffman.
The Islanders received two goals from Anders Lee and singles from Anthony Beauvillier, Andrew Ladd and Jason Chimera.
The game effectively started over after Hoffman beat Greiss to tie the game 5-5 on a power play with 8:11 remaining in the second period.
At that point, Greiss joined Anderson as a spectator for the second half of the game.
When Chimera beat a shaky, sloppy Anderson on a breakaway to give the Islanders their 5-4 lead, he was gone in favour of Condon.
There were countless offensive highlights for the Senators, who came into the game having scored only eight goals during their sevengame losing streak.
Ryan and Smith scored their long overdue first goals of the season and the struggling power play scored twice.
For all the good, though, there was plenty of bad in their own zone. Beyond Anderson’s struggles, captain Erik Karlsson was lost at times, unable to pick up loose players in the slot leading to at least a couple of Islanders goals.
As the Senators slide had grown, the Senators insisted they were close, that if they kept doing the same things over and over again, eventually they would earn themselves a break or two.
The team’s slump also coincided with a run of individual slumps.
After Dzingel opened the scoring on a breakaway, Smith blasted a slapshot past Greiss to make it 2-0. The goal was set up by Duchene, who caused a turnover deep in the Islanders zone. It was Duchene’s second point in two games since joining the Senators.
The Islanders stormed back to tie the game. Beauvillier was left alone in front to make it 2-1 and Lee pounced on a loose puck in the crease to tie the game on a power play.
Yet before the period was out, the Senators received the kind of lucky break that hasn’t been going their way lately.
Dion Phaneuf ’s pass from the corner of the rink banked off the skate of Ryan and into the corner of the net.
The Senators arrived in Brooklyn in danger of extending their losing streak to eight games, the longest since an 11-game slide in
2010-11.
The Islanders entered the game with an 8-0-2 record at the arena, having outscored opponents 4630.
Boucher dressed Chabot in the hopes for more offence. He got his wish. And then some.
Boucher also re-united the line of Derick Brassard, Mark Stone and Ryan – a line that combined for 11 goals and 14 assists in the opening eight games of the season.
As a second line, Duchene played with Smith and Hoffman.
Ultimately, offence wasn’t an issue.
As for the defence and goaltending? Well, at least the Senators can breathe for a moment before addressing those deep problems, relishing finally winning a game. Somehow.
The Senators will leave New York for Winnipeg Saturday, continuing their season-high seven game road trip against the Jets Sunday.