Sens Rout Rangers

After a tidy 2-0 victory over the Kraken on Saturday, the Senators welcomed the Metro leading New York Rangers to the Canadian Tire Centre tonight. Coming into this game, the Rangers had only suffered five losses through 23 games, posting a sterling 18-4-1 record. With this already tall task in front of them, the Sens also announced they'd be without Thomas Chabot who suffered a knee injury during Saturday's contest.

Based on what we know about the Ottawa Senators, this was either going to be a blowout loss or a classic Sens-ing, nothing in between.

Folks, they Sens'd 'em.

The game opened up with some back and forth before Brady Tkachuk opened the scoring a little over halfway through the first.

Approaching the final minute of the opening frame, the Sens' team Dad doubled Ottawa's lead.

Closing out the first with a 2-0 lead was basically as good as the Sens could have planned coming into this game against one of the best teams in the East. Unfortunately, toward the end of the period, Dominik Kubalik found himself in the penalty box and the Rangers buried their first of the game on that man advantage early in the second period.

Fortunately for the fans at the CTC, Vladdy came to play.

Next, Drake Batherson ensured everyone could get that sweet Gabriel's pizza deal tomorrow as he banged home a shot from Tarasenko to make it 4-2.

Later in the period, the Tkaptain got his second of the game, bringing Ottawa's lead to 5-2 to close out 40 minutes.

Yes, you read this recap correctly. The Ottawa Senators not only didn't implode in the second period, they actually won the second period 3-2. Bless up.

The lone goal of the third period came off the stick of Tarasenko, as he buried an empty netter to put the final nail in New York's coffin. The Senators managed to knock off the Metro leading Rangers by a score of 6-2.

Game Notes

• What's not to like about the game tonight? This may have been one of the most complete games the Ottawa Senators have put together to date. Not only that, but they managed to bury five goals on Igor Shesterkin. Good stuff, lads.
• Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson, Claude Giroux, Vladamir Tarasenko, Erik Brännström (!) and Artem Zub (!) all contributed multi-point efforts in tonight's victory.
• DJ Smith certainly welcomed Ridly Greig back with caution tonight, as the rookie centre didn't crack the 10 minute mark in ice time in his first game back from injury.
• It was a surprise to me when I checked the final box score and saw that Jake Sanderson didn't register a single point considering he was all over the ice tonight, in a great way. He was activated, he was smooth, he played a fantastic game. His 65.52 CF% certainly reflects how well he played.
• The trio of Tkachuk, Giroux and Josh Norris were lights out tonight, as well. Their 73.3 CF% led all lines for both clubs.
• Anton Forsberg, you deserve plenty of credit for this one. Following Saturday's shutout, Forsberg posted a .943 SV% on route to a second straight win in his second straight start. This might be Anton's net for a bit, folks.
• Smith may have dressed 12 forwards but he really only played 11, as Zack MacEwen only saw 2:38 of ice time tonight.
• While the Senators ended up winning the game, their powerplay wasn't of any help. All five of their goals were scored at even strength.

Game Flow

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