Mike Condon stopped a penalty shot attempt from Marcus Kruger with under five minutes left, and also made a number of other quality saves over the final few minutes as the Senators hung on for a 4-3 win in Chicago Tuesday night.
It is a much easier game to play when you aren't trailing, and that is a big reason why the Senators have won three straight. Bobby Ryan has scored first in each of them, and the Senators haven't trailed in a game since the second period of the San Jose game a week ago.
Ryan got the Sens on the board first, with a quick wrist shot from the circle after Kyle Turris' shot was blocked. It was the fourth straight game that Ryan has scored the Sens' first goal, and it is probably not a coincidence that the team has points in all four games in which Ryan has scored. Chicago fought back and tied it up on a power play marker from Artemi Panaren before the first period was out.
The first turning point was Ottawa's back to back markers from Derick Brassard and Tom Pyatt, just ten seconds apart as the midway mark of the second period approached. Tyler Motte closed the gap to one a couple of minutes later but Turris banked one in off of Dion Phanuef to restore the two goal lead heading into the third.
Richard Panik was a pain in the Senators' side for most of the third period, scoring early to bring the Hawks back within one, and late in the frame by poking and prodding at Mike Condon, whether the puck was there or not as he did everything he could do to help his club tie the game.
The other turning point was the penalty shot save by Condon, on a play that probably didn't deserve a penalty shot but rather a penalty. Kruger was never really on a clear breakaway and Phaneuf did do enough to warrant a penalty. But since Ottawa was on the power play at the time and Condon made the save, the call worked out to the Senators advantage because the remained on the man advantage.
But when Richard Panik is the Hawks most dangerous player on a given night, it means your team has done a decent job of controlling the bigger guns like Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane as well as Panarin. Kane did have two assists but was largely held in check. Toews had an early breakaway and another play where he batted the puck wide, otherwise it could have been a completely different game.
The challenge for the Senators heading into this one was to show they can compete with elite teams when they do bring their A game, and they did that for most of the night. A team like the Hawks aren't going to roll over and give up, and they did come with a lot of pressure in the third period. The Senators did a good job of keeping most of the shots from the outside and Mike Condon did the rest to assure a Senators victory.
It was a pretty good all-around team effort, with 16 of the 18 skaters getting at least one shot on goal (Chris Wideman and Mark Borowiecki being the exceptions). Marc Methot played a whale of a game, perhaps his best of the season. Even with the third period pressure that came from the Hawks, the Senators still held them under 30 shots.
For the second time in three games, the Senators lost a coaches challenge, this time looking for an offside call on the Hawks' second goal. It was very close, but there wasn't enough evidence to overturn the call and the goal stood, rightly so. It was probably worth the challenge, unlike Saturday's challenge where it was early on and the evidence was simply not there to support the goaltender interference call the Guy Boucher was asking for. That one was a waste of a timeout and they were lucky it didn't come back to haunt them in a relatively close game against the Devils.
Up next for the Senators is a return home to face the Ducks on Thursday night, looking to return the beating that they took a couple of weeks ago in Anaheim on the Senators road trip. That was the second half of a back to back and it was one of Ottawa's weaker performances of the season. It will also be the final game before the Christmas break, one of those nights that you are never really sure what kind of effort you are going to get.