With the exception of Brady Tkachuk‘s breakaway goal to open the scoring, the Ottawa Senators were outplayed and outshot by the Calgary Flames for the majority of the game Monday at the Canadian Tire Centre.
The Flames peppered the Senators with 85 shot attempts, 37 of those were on goal. However, it was the Senators who were able to pull out a victory from the clutches of defeat in dramatic fashion.
Leading 3-1 on a pair of goals from Dillon Dube and one from former Ottawa 67 Tyler Toffoli with less than three minutes remaining, the Flames appeared to be well on their way to their 26th win of the season.
The Senators pulled rookie goalie Mads Sogaard for a sixth attacker. Drake Batherson, who was reunited with his linemates Tkachuk and Tim Stützle, jammed home a rebound of Stützle’s shot to trim the Flames lead to one with 2:14 remaining.
Moments later, Stützle took a pass from Erik Brannstrom, feeding Alex DeBrincat for a one-timed shot over the shoulder of Flames netminder Jacob Markstrom 42 seconds later, tying the game at three and ultimately sending it into overtime.
Then in the extra frame, DeBrincat retreated into his zone, permitting his team to make a line change. DeBrincat carried the puck out and hit a breaking Stützle, who beat Markstrom between the blocker and his body 1:55 in, sending the portion of the 15,024 fans that had remained in their seats home happy.
Batherson noted his club’s comeback: “It was crazy game. I mean, with four or five minutes left, you kind of see a few people leaving and then before you know what it’s tied up. It’s awesome.”
It was the Senators’ latest comeback when trailing by two goals in franchise history.
The surprise win once again put the Senators one game over .500, sporting a 25-24-3 record. The team now has wins in five of their past six games.
For Stützle, it was a great evening. The 21-year old set a personal high of 23 goals, surpassing last season’s total in only 48 games, and added three assists to complete his second four-point outing in three games.
Senators’ head coach D.J. Smith mentioned the CTC ice wasn’t up to snuff postgame, and Stützle didn’t feel comfortable having the puck bounce on him several times.
Of his game, Stützle said: “Not great, to be honest. A lot of pocket bobbling in the slot and on the powerplay too. I think we had some good looks but then yeah, the puck bobbled last the second every time we wanted to shoot. But in the end, we figured it out. I got really mad there a couple times.”
Along with Stützle’s heroics, most of the credit for the Senators’ win goes to the defense core who were playing without injured Jake Sanderson, and especially rookie goalie Mads Sogaard.
Led by Travis Hamonic‘s six, the Senators were credited with 28 shot blocks.
Smith told Full Press Hockey, “I mean, they (the Flames) put the puck in every time. They knew they were wearing it — wearing us down — you know obviously not having Jake, one of our better performers back there. But give credit to a (Nick) Holden and “Hammer” and those guys that you know that block all those shots. Then obviously “Branny” and in this case (Thomas) Chabot the puck movers.”
Sogaard, making his first start of the campaign in place of the twice-injured Anton Forsberg and third of his young career, stopped 34 Flames shots — several point blank — including a pad stack save in overtime.
The Senators’ head coach called the 22-year old “calm” between the pipes. Sogaard was just that postgame.
“It’s not everyday you get to live your dream, so I was just trying to have as much fun as possible and treat it as another game. And you know that preparation has been identical for the past five, six years. So that helped me a lot, just to dial in and treat it like another hockey game, and I just had so much fun. It was crazy to hear the crowd when we scored the winner.”
It was also the native of Denmark’s first “W” on home ice.
“To be here and and awesome to get a win and in front of our fans. And you know, it’s it’s my first one here with my loss last time I played against Winnipeg. So always a very special moment and something that I won’t forget.”
The Senators have an engagement with the New York Islanders on the road Valentine’s Day, hoping that everything comes up rosy as it did Monday evening.
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