Batherson's Hat-Trick Lifts Sens Over Ducks, 5-1

Regarding the 2024-25 season, this game was very off-brand for the Ottawa Senators. Crucially, they scored more goals than their opponents, the Anaheim Ducks. That's enough to make me happy. But there were a few more notable occurrences:

First, a goal was scored by someone outside of their top six – Noah Gregor, with his 3rd of the season.

Then, Ottawa faced an opposing power play with much more aggression than what we saw against the Islanders, eventually drawing a power-play of their own, which quickly became a 5-on-3 after Radko Gudas flipped the puck out of play. The Sens took a bit of time to get going, but eventually capitalized. A goal-line camera angle showed the puck clearly over the goal line, even though it wasn't completely visible. A bit of good karma after his disallowed goal a few games back.

And that was just one of three consecutive goals Batherson scored in this game, comprising a natural hat trick, which also served as some much-needed regression in shooting luck for the team. His second marker went in off of Cam Fowler, while the third was a seemingly harmless shot from near the blue line that went through a screened John Gibson.

Batherson also added an apple to a four-point night, taking advantage of time and space created by Tim Stützle to set up Brady Tkachuk:

And, the cherry on top? An Ottawa Senators goalie posted a save percentage above .900. I could cry tears of joy.

Another way in which this game was a bit of an odd one for the Sens? The shot count, which predictably ended in Ottawa's favour, was a lot closer than you'd expect, a 34-32 differential. Looking at the shot quality, though, that's not a big deal. The Ducks didn't generate many quality chances and only managed to establish a presence in Ottawa's end when they were already down 3-0.

He didn't necessarily need to be stellar tonight, but Linus Ullmark certainly was. The only goal he allowed was due to his clearing attempt bouncing off the referee:

Ullmark is now 3-0-1 in his last 4 games, and as his save percentage continues to improve toward his career average of .917, his 8-7-2 record will continue to improve as well. Too bad he can't play every game from here on out!

With the win, the Sens improve to 13-13-2 on the season and are two points back of the Tampa Bay Lightning, who have two games in hand for the second wildcard spot. They're not out of it, but they have a grueling nine-game road trip coming up that will most likely determine the outcome of the season.

But first, the Carolina Hurricanes are coming up on Friday, at 7:00 pm EST. Hope we don't see the same officials as last time...

Stats: