Senators stumble again
‘We’re just not getting the results we want right now,’ says Karlsson
The Ottawa Senators had a long history of road success in the Nassau Veterans’ Memorial Coliseum.
But a new home building for the New York Islanders, coupled with a sad Senators season that keeps slip-sliding away, resulted in another disappointing defeat Wednesday night. The Islanders, now playing out of the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, handed the Senators a 3-1 loss, blowing open a scoreless tie with a three-goal second period explosion.
John Tavares got it started, beating Erik Karlsson to a rebound after the Senators’ fourth line of Matt Puempel, Curtis Lazar and Nick Paul got caught chasing the puck.
Matt Martin and Brock Nelson — on an assist from former Senator Shane Prince — then buried the visitors by scoring only 21 seconds apart against Ottawa goaltender Andrew Hammond before the period was out. Allowing quick back-to-back goals has been an ugly problem all season long, one of the countless issues that have plagued the Senators inside their own zone since the outset of a season they would rather forget.
“I think that happens to teams that are in losing streaks, which we have been in for the last little part,” said Karlsson. “I don’t think there’s an explanation for why. We’re just not getting the results we want right now.”
Martin’s goal came after he was left alone in front to deflect a Travis Hamonic shot past Hammond. Nelson’s goal resulted from both Marc Methot and Cody Ceci being trapped behind the net. Cameron questioned the Nelson goal, claiming that the play was offside.
But he lost that challenge, putting the Senators in the all too familiar position of facing a long climb back, chasing the game.
Mark Stone scored at the 6:21 mark of the third period, breaking the bid by Islanders rookie goaltender Jean-François Bérubé to post his first career shutout.
It was Stone’s 23rd goal and 60th point of the season. Stone is the first Senators player to register at least 60 points in his first two seasons since Daniel Alfredsson broke into the NHL. The play was also set up by Karlsson, who registered his leagueleading 62nd assist.
“We’re playing some good hockey, but at the same time, we’re just having some major collapses that are costing us goals,” said Stone.
The loss to the Islanders was the Senators’ fourth straight on the road. It also came on the heels of Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to Washington at the Canadian Tire Centre, cap- ping a two-day stretch of organizational dysfunction, which also included owner Eugene Melnyk putting Cameron on alert.
The Senators flew home to Ottawa after the game. Following games on consecutive nights, they will be off from practice Thursday before returning Friday in preparation for Saturday’s game against the Ducks at CTC.
Unlike Tuesday, when the Sens spotted the Capitals a 3-0 first period lead, the Senators were in the game early against the Islanders.
After killing off a pair of early penalties, they forced Bérubé into making several key first period saves — including a sprawling acrossthe-crease dive to rob Stone. The Senators outshot the Islanders 10-5 in the first period.
With their own playoff hopes gone, the Senators were aiming to play the spoiler role against an Islanders team that had been spinning its wheels. They also owned some good feelings playing the Islanders away from home, entering the game with a 5-0-2 record in their past seven visits.
Those games, however, were played at the Nassau Coliseum. The Barclays Center is a different animal, a basketball-oriented arena located in the heart of Brooklyn.
While the Islanders have delivered solid results in their first year here — they were 21-9-4 at home before meeting the Senators — their once strong hold on a playoff spot has been slipping away during an early March slump where they’ve struggled to score.
They were on a 1-4-2 slide after losing to Philadelphia on Monday, and only two points up on Detroit and Philadelphia for the wild card spot in the East.
All of that prompted Islanders coach Jack Capuano to make the bold move of starting the rookie Bérubé in goal against the Sena- tors. Bérubé, subbing for Thomas Greiss, went into the game with a career NHL record of 1-1-1, with a 2.52 goals against average and .924 save percentage.
Injured No. 1 goaltender Jaroslav Halak is still several weeks away from returning from his groin injury, meaning the Islanders netminding situation is a serious question mark as they attempt to qualify for the post-season.
Give Bérubé credit. He did his part, answering the challenge by keeping the game scoreless until the Islanders found their scoring touch.
“We had some real good looks, the penalty kill was good (early),” said Cameron.
“At any time, you need an emotional boost, but in a back to back game, getting an early goal would have been huge. And then in the second period, we fell behind and that created some momentum for them and we started chasing.”