Great effort not enough as Senators lose 6-5 to Avalanche
From start to finish, tonight's game against the Colorado Avalanche was a demonstration of what the Ottawa Senators skaters have to do to win games this year. Unfortunately, without much support from Brian Elliott in net, even the five goals scored weren't enough and the Senators lost 6-5 in overtime.
In the end, looking past the disappointment of losing a game that was within grasp, the Sens still managed to get three of four possible points on the road trip, which ain't half bad. It's probably the kind of point-production rate the Senators are going to have to continue through the rest of the season if they've any hope of making the playoffs this year.
Sens Hero: Erik Karlsson
Unreal, this kid. Still. His pump-fake early in the first to freeze Craig Anderson was a great move, and by giving the Senators the early lead he set the Avalanche back on their heels for much of the first half of the game. He's now got eight points in the last six games.
Sens Hero: Milan Michalek
Michalek was a monster in the first period, scoring a goal and registering four of Ottawa's seven shots in the frame. He slowed down a bit in the following periods, finishing up with five shots total, but still had one of his better games of the season.
Sens Hero: Ottawa's fourth line
It started with Ryan Shannon, Jesse Winchester, and Peter Regin, although a sweet assist from Shannon got him bumped up and Alex Kovalev bumped down for periods at a time. But no matter the combination of those four, the fourth line gave Ottawa some much-needed energy and momentum when they came on the ice. Regin's puck-control and puck-recovery skills are quite impressive, and Winchester's just a grinder who's always willing to do the hard work in the corners and behind the net. A very effective and constructive fourth line.
Sens Killer: Craig Anderson
Anderson really kept the Avalanche in the game throughout the whole matchup. Although the Senators had four leads throughout, and although the game won't help Anderson's stats too much, but without Anderson the Avs would have been out of the game pretty early.
Sens Zero: Brian Elliott
Tough game for Elliott, allowing six goals on 25 shots for an abysmal save percentage (I'm glad I didn't pick him up for my fantasy team). On a few of the goals he had little help from the defence, but a few--particularly the first two--were just ugly. He can't complain that he didn't have offensive support tonight.
Shot chart:
Game highlights:
