COMEBACK KIDS FINALLY RUN OUT OF MIRACLES
Habs end the Senators’ improbable post-season run
The greatest adventures end too soon.
So it was with the Ottawa Senators unexpected run to the postseason, a record-breaking, 23-4-4 joyride that re-ignited a fan base, even if the path would ultimately lead to a cul-de-sac: a six-game, quarter-final series loss to the favoured Montreal Canadiens.
In their third crack at eliminating Ottawa, the Habs finally got it done, climbing on the back of goaltender Carey Price, who made a magnificent rebound from his Game 5 loss, stopping all 43 shots for the 2-0 shutout.
“Good goalies step up,” said winger Clarke MacArthur. “And he was their best guy.”
In the dying seconds, the Senators pushed hard, had chances, opportunities that “are going to haunt us for a while,” MacArthur said, but gave up the second goal into an open net, on a desperation clearing attempt by Max Pacioretty. And that was it.
To their feet, fans rose and delivered a thunderous roar in appreciation of this endearing team. Players saluted back, raising sticks as spines tingled.
In the spring of 2015, the Sens finally ran out of miracles.
Dream travel ends, and it’s time to get back to work.
For Senators management, the work begins today, sorting out next year’s roster and this summer’s draft list.
After a passionate push from mid-February on, Senators players can finally relax, disappointed in the playoff outcome but as hopeful for the future as any young team can be.
Based on the stretch drive and spirited first round series, all of which brought a ray of sunshine to a dreary winter, Senators players won’t have to buy a drink around town for weeks. Still it stung.
Captain Erik Karlsson said the loss left him “very empty.”
As impressive as was their run to reach the playoffs, alternate captain Kyle Turris said the parting feeling is “bittersweet” at being done after round one.
With a break or two, the Senators could still be playing, or be packing for round two.
The games were all close, and the one lopsided win belonged to Ottawa, 5-1 on Friday.
The Senators scored first in five of the six games, but not on Sunday, when Brendan Gallagher got the visitors on the board, ending what had been a couple of games of futility trying to put pucks past Craig Anderson.
For the better part of 50 minutes, the Habs nursed the single goal, counting on Price to shut down the enemy as he did so often this season while flaunting his credentials as a Hart Trophy and Vezina Trophy candidate.
When the Senators did put a puck past Price, in the second period, a quick whistle nullified what would have been the tying goal.
Price thought he had the puck tucked safely in his chest, so did the referee who blew the whistle. J. G. Pageau knew it was loose, and tucked it into the open net only to be told the play was dead.
“Tough one to swallow,” Anderson said of the non-goal.
“But we had a lot of time left to get one.” It never came. “It could have been 1-1, it could have been 5-1 us with all the opportunities and chances we had, and chaos at their net,” Turris said.
Through 40 minutes the Senators were outshooting Montreal 29-16, but many of the shots were routine for Price. When the chances were Grade A, like Turris ripping a wrister on a 2-on-1, Price got across and got his blocker on the shot.
He’s been lurking, like a debt collector, Price.
From the outset of this series there was always the sense that Price would steal a game. He hadn’t until Sunday.
Anderson, meanwhile, needed some help to keep his team in the game. Tomas Plekanec had a wide open net when his second period backhand veered up and over the net. The Habs also hit a post as they tried to build on their slim lead. For the most part, they were happy clogging up centre ice.
“We were just a bit off,” Senators head coach Dave Cameron said of his team. Not as sharp as in Montreal Friday.
In the end, the Senators offered a tip of the cap to the Canadiens, a team that perhaps drew inspiration from their bloody, stinging playoff loss to Ottawa two years ago.
Almost always, there is give and take between franchises.
The Senators have won and lost playoff series against Pittsburgh, Buffalo and New Jersey. And now the storied Montreal franchise, the team that Ottawa eclipsed in five memorable games in 2013, the only Senators series win over an Original Six franchise, has gained a measure of revenge on what went down when Daniel Alfredsson was still captain here.
Next time, it could all play out differently and probably will. This is the joy of post-season hockey. Drama, mystery, surprise. Joyous victories and crushing defeats. To and fro. When it ends, it all ends swiftly.
“One hiccup and the season is over,” winger Mark Stone had said, as the Senators played in a trio of elimination games.
One hiccup ends a memorable Senators season.