Senators Defeat the Kings 8-7 in Wild West Shootout

Thanksgiving Monday didn't start off the best as not only were fans not going to receive their gravy boats, it was announced that Linus Ullmark and Ridly Greig were not going to play due to injuries. Instead, Anton Forsberg made his first start of the season, looking to bounce back from a subpar 2023-24 campaign. Although this game was played on Thanksgiving, the theme was more of a Wild West shootout.

Several minutes into the game, Tanner Jeannot delivered a dirty (but non-penalized) hit to the head of Artem Zub, and Zack MacEwen immediately came to Zub's aid by fighting Jeannot. The fight wasn't close at all, which you like to see. What you don't like to see is that Zub was sent to the dressing room out of caution, and Ottawa ended up with an extra instigator penalty, which the Kings were able to capitalize on.

Anze Kopitar and Kevin Fiala made a nice give-and-go on the left side before Fiala one-timed it shortside past Anton Forsberg. Forsberg seemed to be screened a bit, but it was one he probably could have had. Then just 55 seconds later, it looked like things were beginning to unravel. Alex Turcotte sent a non-threatening shot from the faceoff dot but it awkwardly deflected off Trevor Lewis and into the net. It's hard to tell how much that affected Forsberg's ability to stop it, but again, it was a frustrating goal against:

Thankfully, Ottawa was given a lifeline to immediately get back into the game, as Nick Cousins drew a roughing penalty on Fiala right by the bench. Jake Sanderson took advantage of that and scored his first goal of the season thanks to a wicked shot:

Despite being down 2-1 after the first period, Ottawa out-attempted Los Angeles 27-9 and it looked like they could stay in this game.

The second period began frustratingly, as it looked like Nepean native Brandt Clarke scored his third career goal to make it 3-1. This is where the game took on another life. It was a crazy play that ended up with Forsberg being shoved into the net and the moorings coming off, which was a good indicator that the goal wasn't going to count. However, the referee signalled goal right away, meaning the Senators had to challenge it:

The goal was overturned, meaning the Senators didn't have to go on the penalty kill, but Shane Pinto simulated that anyway as he shot the puck over the glass to put the Kings on the man advantage. Clarke wasn't able to score on that powerplay, but he did get a primary assist on a fantastic short-side one-timer from Adrian Kempe. After that, Forsberg was lifted in favour of Mads Søgaard for the rest of the night.

Things were looking down for the Senators, but out of nowhere, MacEwen was able to breathe life into the Canadian Tire Centre. The puck rolled over the blueline and MacEwen was nowhere near the net but decided to take an incredibly hard slapshot that blew past Darcy Kuemper. It was quite the way to get within one goal:

The next 7:26 was absolutely preposterous as it saw the score go from 3-1 Los Angeles to a 5-5 tie. Alex Laferriere had a great tip on a Kyle Burroughs pass to make it 4-2 right after MacEwen scored, but then Burroughs was able to help the Senators by taking his own delay of game penalty. Five seconds into the powerplay, Drake Batherson made it a one-goal game for the third time:

And just as the building was excited about the score being close, Thomas Chabot scored a wonderful goal to tie the game at four. It came just 19 seconds after Batherson's marker:

But as I mentioned, this game was anything but easy, and the Kings would take the lead yet again thanks to another powerplay goal from Fiala. The goaltender interference call on Brady Tkachuk was quite weak as he lost his balance and it didn't affect the play, but the goal counted all the same. MacEwen was determined to have the game of his life though, as just 1:27 after Fiala gave them the lead, he scored five-hole on Kuemper to tie the game for the second time:

Heading into the third period, I'm sure fans were hoping for some normalcy in the final frame, but we couldn't quite get that. Laferriere scored his second of the night after a poor turnover from Michael Amadio led to a breakaway. It seemed inevitable that he was going to score, and he did, making it 6-5 3:38 into the final period. The Kings seemed dead-set on letting the Senators back in this game though, as Clarke took a tripping penalty, which allowed Claude Giroux to be the hero this time to tie the game for the third time:

Los Angeles challenged the play for goaltender interference as David Perron made slight contact with Kuemper's glove, but it didn't really affect the play, so the goal stood. Ottawa wasn't able to capitalize on their second powerplay in a row afterward, but wouldn't you know it, Mikey Anderson took an undisciplined holding penalty to give the Senators yet another chance at taking the lead.

This time, they wouldn't pass up the opportunity, as Josh Norris gave the Senators their first lead of the night after a great pass from Batherson:

But you knew this game wasn't going to go 10 minutes without another goal, and Jeannot was the one to tie the game this time, with 5:34 left. Nick Jensen got knocked down in front of Søgaard, which left Jeannot quite open at the bottom of the circle, and he made no mistake to bury it. It was complete and utter frustration that Ottawa could not keep the puck out of their net.

The Kings went to the powerplay with three minutes left in the game, which seemed like it could have been the deciding factor. However, Ottawa was able to have their best kill of the night at the perfect time, and the game went to overtime at a score of 7-7. Mercifully, after some excellent passing from Stützle and Batherson, Norris was up to the task again in overtime, scoring a massive goal to send the Sens fans home happy:

It was a great play all around from Batherson and Stützle to get it to Norris, and it's a play that has me excited about this team's offensive potential. It was a Happy Thanksgiving in the end! Ottawa moves to a record of 2-1-0.

Game Notes:

• I love seeing resiliency from the team this early on. They trailed 2-0, 3-1, 4-2, 5-4, and 6-5, yet they were still able to win 8-7. The offense looked electric, which is a good sign moving forward.
• With some better goaltending, this game wouldn't have even been close. Sound familiar? It's not nearly good enough from both Forsberg and Søgaard that they allowed 7 goals on 26 shots, which is a putrid .731 SV%. Awful games happen, but they need to be so much better than what they provided last year. Søgaard in particular needs to show that he's at least a 3rd string goalie because he's not even that right now.
• Looking on the bright side, they dominated at 5v5. The attempts were 61-34 for Ottawa and they were over 50% in all three periods. Even in all strengths, it was 81-46, so I liked seeing that they deserved to win.
• Having said that, the penalty kill needs to be better as the Kings were 4-6 on the powerplay. Some of that is goaltending, but it can't all be on them.
• What a game from MacEwan. He was 2nd Star of the night and he ended with 2 goals, +2, 2 shots, and 2 hits. It would be great to see more offense from him.
• Seven Senators had multi-point games including MacEwan (2 goals), Tkachuk (2 assists), Norris (2 goals, 1 assist), Stützle (3 assists), Batherson (1 goal, 2 assists), Chabot (1 goal, 1 assist), and Sanderson (1 goal, 1 assist). Having a bunch of different contributors is excellent.
• The MVP from tonight might have been this fan who was an instant favourite on the TSN broadcast

Heat Map:

Game Flow:

Ottawa's next game is on Thursday at home against the New Jersey Devils.