Sens Hang On For Wild 3-2 Win

The Ottawa Senators and the Winnipeg Jets are two teams with very different outlooks on the final stretch of the season. But, as I've written, many, many times before: any team can win on any given night in the NHL. Tonight, the Sens extended their latest late-season win streak to five games. The Jets, meanwhile, have now lost six in a row. If you had watched this game without any knowledge of the two squads' relative position in the standings, you might not have guessed that they were separated by 24 points. Regardless, if you're a Sens fan looking for some optimism heading into next season, this was another encouraging night.

In the first period, nothing happened. I don't mean literally nothing happened, there was twenty minutes of gameplay, but that's about all that can be said about the opening stanza. The two teams combined for ten shots, and none were of any consequence. I won't waste more space describing it here. It was almost like the two teams had a gentleman's agreement to wait until the second to get things underway.

If the first period was Passive with a capital "P", then the second got off to a quick start when Nikolaj Ehlers buried a chance from in close after a sustained Jets' cycle. It was one of those plays where Winnipeg kept pushing and eventually the Ottawa defensive structure collapsed. Good teams will do that to you.

One of the good things about the Sens' recent play has been their resiliency, and less than two minutes later, and on the next shift for the Tyler Kleven- Erik Brännström pairing that was victimized on the goal against, Ottawa equalized. Boris Katchouk, who's out here scoring like he badly wants to stick around next season, potted the goal:

I also agree strongly with the caption, Sens admin.

Less than ten minutes later, Ridly Greig extended the Sens' lead:

The Sens finished the second stanza up by one, but they might not have done so if it wasn't for Joonas Korpisalo. It feels strange to keep writing this, but, yet again, Ottawa received stellar play from their goaltender. Winnipeg managed 11 shots, several of which were dangerous and required athletic saves from the Finnish 'tender.

The third period started as a continuation of the end of the second: with Winnipeg pressing and the Sens just kinda hanging on for dear life but as it went on Ottawa got their feet beneath them. Korpisalo was mostly responsible for the lead remaining intact – especially with the Sens having to fend off a couple of short-handed opportunities. Though they did kill Jake Sanderson's dubious tripping penalty, they could not keep the Jets at bay when Greig got nabbed for ....something?

Anyways, Mark Scheifele scored by banking the puck off Artem Zub's skate:

Luckily for Ottawa, the Jets got pinged for an infraction of their own and though the Sens' power play had not exactly covered itself in glory until this point, all it takes is one goal. Brady Tkachuk delivered:

From there it was basically a yard sale in the Sens' end, with all hands on deck protecting the lead. A lot of desperation, some controlled, some not so much.

With a 6-on-4 advantage, Sean Monahan missed an absolutely gaping net and somehow Ottawa escaped.

I have a lot of questions about what in the world Tyler Kleven is doing that far up the wall with his team defending a one-goal lead late in the third and on a 4-on-6 PK but Monahan missed so all is forgiven.

You can all relax now. Sens win.

Game Thoughts:

-Korpisalo is an incredibly athletic goalie. Even when he was going badly earlier in the year, he was still usually good for a few outrageous saves. When he's sound positionally, he can be really good. "Can" remains the operative word here, though.

-I've marveled about Sanderson's skating many times before, but his ability to lose defenders with a stop-up still impresses me every time. What a skater.

-The fourth line was once again fairly effective, and of course got the Katchouk goal to show for it. As with the Korpisalo note above, I would not go so far as to return that unit next year, but the facts are the facts: the trio has been good for a nice stretch now.

-It kind of feels like the Sens are going on the meaningless end-of-season run to end them all doesn't it?

Game Flow:

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