Sens Get Clutch Win over Red Wings

As Shaan alluded to in his preview of tonight's affair, the match-up between the Detroit Red Wings and Ottawa Senators featured two teams who entered the year with high expectations that they have failed to live up to. Fortunately for Sens fans, Ottawa was the team who took advantage of their scuffling opponents. It might not have been the prettiest path to get there, but we are officially at the point in the season when two points is all that matters.

During the TSN broadcast, Mike Johnson mentioned that the Sens were 8-1 entering tonight's game when they scored the first goal. As you can summarize, their record when they don't score first is....not good. After a solid if unremarkable start to the opening stanza, you could consider it as a very positive development, then, that Ottawa managed to open the scoring.

It was exactly the kind of goal that the Sens haven't been getting much of during this poor run of play: sustained pressure on the forecheck creating a turnover, and a nice bit of skill to finish off a Grade A chance. In this specific case, Brady Tkachuk and Drake Batherson combined on the pressuring part, and Josh Norris did the finishing:

The Sens mostly got the better of the Wings for the rest of the period, but couldn't convert on two power play opportunities to stretch the lead. This would be a theme for much of the evening.

In the second period, Noah Gregor utilized his speed to great effect to draw a tripping penalty against the lead-footed Ben Chiarot and the Sens went to their third power-play of the game. As you may be aware, the Detroit Red Wings have a terrible penalty kill and Ottawa appeared to take advantage when Drake Batherson buried a rebound but the goal was eventually called back for offside. I will keep my thoughts on whether the NHL should continue inspecting goals for offside with a microscope to myself.

Regardless, the Sens still led 1-0 and while they were playing well, they weren't exactly putting the Red Wings away. Ottawa wasn't quite dominating, Ville Husso was playing well but not spectacularly, and I would be lying if I said I didn't feel a general malaise about the whole thing. The Sens were a bit better, were holding a precarious lead and letting their opponents hang around. That's where things stood after forty minutes.

In the third, we were treated to a stellar edition of the Ref Show. While I'm not one to typically gripe about officiating, this call that gave the Wings a 4-on-3 power play was something else:

Enemy of the people Alex DeBrincat would take advantage of the extra ice to level the score and all of those bad feelings were only further amplified.

More dubious officiating:

With everything that had happened in the third period, particularly the questionable officiating, it would have been easy for the Sens to fold up. Instead, in a delightful surprise, Ottawa got a clutch goal:

Josh Norris is quietly up to eleven goals on the season now, tracking to 36 for the year. Not bad, not bad at all.

The Wings didn't have enough time to recover and Ottawa waltzed away with the much-needed two points.

Sens win?

SENS WIN!

Game Notes:

-I've said on several occasions that of all the things ailing the Sens, the one I was least worried about is Ullmark. He's inevitably going to have some more stinkers, but I'm willing to bet that between now and the end of the season he's going to find his way back towards the top of the goalie leaderboards. It's a good thing, because the way this offense is goin the Sens are going to need every bit of it.

-Thomas Chabot has been the Sens' best defenseman by a good margin this year, and for the last few games he's been treated as such at 5v5. He was very good, again, this evening, and as long as Artem Zub is out, it says here that Chabot-Jensen should continue to get the top billing. Chabot's been one of the best stories of the young season.

-Batherson made several strong plays tonight, and was generally looking like a menace throughout. Another guy who's had a strong season.

-After the game, Norris disclosed that Green has encouraged the team to try to win 2-1, so maybe the coach should try specifying the exact score they should play to more often:

Game Flow and Heat Map: