Sens win 4-3 as Sanderson scores OT winner

There we go. We all said we wanted the Sens to get a win these playoffs, and they did. The sweep is off. There's some life in this team and this fanbase. It was arguably the Sens' worst game of the series, but sometimes you grind those out and find a way to win. Linus Ullmark was good enough, making 32 saves. Jake Sanderson made a couple of bad plays, one leading to a goal against, but he scored the OT winner. Crucially, the Sens' PK allowed no goals on four opportunities, while Shane Pinto got a shorthanded goal, taking away the Leafs' best weapon this series. And this team got a win. In the playoffs.

The first period opened about as well as it could for the Sens. Max Domi channelled his dad and punched Shane Pinto in the face for no reason on a faceoff, giving the Sens an early powerplay, where Tim Stützle was left wide open and buried the perfect shot.

Then, David Perron showed his veteran leadership by losing his mind after Ottawa almost scored again and taking a needless penalty. But on the PK, Ottawa showed the danger in having a five-forward PP unit, when Shane Pinto got out alone and buried a nice shortie five-hole.

The Sens did let their momentum wane as the period went on, and you know this Toronto team is too good to not take advantage. Batherson and Stützle both chased a hit on Max Pacioretty before changing, which got the Sens caught a little out. William Nylander wristed one from the point that – stop me if you've heard this before – Linus Ullmark never saw, and John Tavares was able to tip it in before Ullmark could even react to the initial shot.

Period 2 started 4-on-4 due to late offsetting penalties to Cozens and Benoit. It didn't solve much, and the Sens settled back into their pattern of never taking shots despite having lots of possession in the offensive zone. I hate it. You can't say Anthony Stolarz is a great goalie when you refuse to take more than 20 shots a game on him. Anyway. Ottawa got a powerplay when John "Not Captain Material" Tavares took a tripping penalty, but then Dylan Cozens twice made soft plays, and on the second one Jake Sanderson decide to take an interference penalty rather than trying to outrace Mitch Marner on a shorthanded break. Brady Tkachuk nearly scored, putting it off the post, and then Ottawa killed the penalty pretty effectively. Unfortunately, Jake Sanderson made his second mistake of the period when a puck was put back to the point between him and Artem Zub. Zub tried to get to it, but Sanderson just stood still, allowing Matthew Knies to take it and skate out. I have no idea how Sandy didn't see Knies. Zub took a holding penalty on the breakaway, but Knies powered through and scored into the top of the net anyway. The second period ended without event, with Ottawa getting a measly one (1) shot on goal, setting up another tie game entering the third with the Sens completely on the ropes.

The third period felt familiar. The Sens got a lot of offensive zone time but refused to take any shots on net, trying to get a more perfect setup. But then something shifted. First, David Perron got a shot on goal in the first couple minutes of the period. Then, William Nylander had a great chance that Ullmark stopped, but before Pontus Holmberg could handle the rebound, Brady Tkachuk levelled him. On the puck going the other way, the Sens got two more shots on goal, including Zub setting up Perron to tuck the puck into an empty net. As I've always said, what a great veteran leader that David Perron is.

Toronto did start to get a couple chances, pouring on pressure. Tyler Kleven made a brilliant stick save to prevent a goal on an empty net.

Unfortunately those good vibes were short-lived, as shortly after Nylander found Oliver Ekman-Larsson with a cross-ice pass to score while completely unmarked. The Sens are just totally unable to handle these pinching defencemen. Honestly, it was another pathetic period by Ottawa. After getting outshot 9-1 in the second, they were outshot 7-3 in the third. Just no desire to generate offence. But hey, at least this one headed to overtime again.

OT opened the worst way possible. Drake Batherson took a double-minor high-sticking penalty behind the Leafs net. It was another stupid play by a player who has done his best to alienate Sens fans this series. Thankfully, the Sens' kill was up to the task, with big blocks, clears, and saves when necessary. They actually had 6 shots on the PP, so Ullmark was thankfully at his most sharp. The OT opened up from there, but Ottawa didn't get too much going until late in the OT. Tyler Kleven led the rush in and got a backhand that Stolarz fought off awkwardly, then Sanderson was quick off the bench, just barely held the puck in, fired it on net and it fooled Stolarz. Mayhem. Bedlam. Cheering in the streets. That roar from the arena was everything I needed to hear.

It's still an uphill battle, but at least we can say, see you Tuesday.

Thoughts:

• I wasn't going to give thoughts on this game if the Sens lost, because nobody wants Xs and Os before a summer where a bunch of these guys might leave. But since Ottawa won, you get some.
• The theme of this game was being good enough. Ullmark was good, not great, but he was spectacular when need, on that OT 4-minute kill. Sanderson made a couple bad mistakes in the second, but he scored the OT winner. Perron took a bad penalty in the first, then scored the 3-2 go-ahead goal. The Sens couldn't get any shots on goal after the first period, but won for the first time this series.
• I'm gonna shout out Tyler Kleven. Dude had a game-saving stick in the third, and then set up the OT winner. Per Natural Stat Trick, he had a 55% expected goals for at 5-on-5, which is mountains better than most of his regular season.
• Zetterlund is still so snake-bitten. He actually had some dangerous chances but couldn't score. I feel bad for the guy, he definitely deserves better than his scoring numbers have shown in Ottawa these playoffs.
• Stolarz had a .900 save percentage last game. He was .850 this game. Get more shots on net. He's shown that he's not a world-beater.
• I will comment very briefly that Zub hit John Tavares high early in OT. It was a soft bump, but it was an elbow to the face. Tavares went down and missed half the OT. I don't think it was dirty, d-men do far worse in front of their nets on the regular, but I am biased. I think it mostly unlucky for Tavares the way he fell after.

Game Flow:

Heat Map: