The streak of getting just 1 goal in regulation continued, making it six games in a row where they have yet to put a second goal on the board.
At least that is what I had jotted down in my notes as I began preparing this post while watching the last three or four minutes of Friday night's game against the Kings. Cue Mark Stone and some timely crease crashing with less than seven seconds left and the Senators pulled victory from the jaws of defeat. Trailing 1-0 entering the third, and even late into the final frame, Zack Smith scored his first goal in 10 games with just under 4 minutes left, tapping his own rebound out of mid-air past Peter Budaj. Then as overtime was looming large and both teams seemingly satisfied with taking a point home and then playing for the bonus point, Erik Karlsson's point shot was mishandled by Budaj and Stone slipped in behind him and shoved it home for his first goal in nine games and first point in seven contests.
It wouldn't have even been close if not for the play of Craig Anderson. The Senators were under the gun from the start and were outshot by a wide margin in the first 10 minutes and could have easily been up by two or three goals. Anderson held firm once againand the game remained scoreless until Jeff Carter banked a shot in off teammate Dwight King early in the second to give the Kings the lead, one that they looked for a long time like they were going to be able to hang on to.
Anderson made a couple of great saves on Anze Kopitar in the second period, the first on a Kings power play where the Kings Captain found himself alone at the hash mark but Anderson challenged the shot and turned it aside. Later, while the Senators were on a power play of their own, Kopitar picked off an ill-advised spin-around blind pass attempt from Mike Hoffman and went in alone on the Senators goalkeeper. Erik Karlsson had some back pressure which forced Kopitar to the glove side, and Anderson stopped the shot to keep it a one goal game.
Jeff Zatkoff, who started the game and stopped all 18 shots he faced, left after the second period, apparently re-aggravating the lower body injury he had recently returned from, giving way to Budaj pick up where his teammate left off.
Whether it was the loss of Kopitar, who also left early in the third period, the fact that the Kings had played the night before, or the Senators finally realizing that you need to score to win, Ottawa took over the momentum in the third, playing probably their best period since their win in Edmonton.
They had multiple chances that were turned away by Budaj before a great shift by the Kyle Turris line on the forecheck forced the Kings on their heels and the next shift Smith scored the tying goal, aided by Mark Stone's net drive. The Kings challenged the goal because after getting tangled up with Stone, Jake Muzzin fell into Budaj's way, but the challenge was unsuccessful, and rightly so. I don't blame the Kings for taking a shot, because it essentially gave them a late, lengthy time out, but if that one had been waved off after what was a net-front battle, they might as well make everything below the hash marks a no-contact zone.
In the head to head battle of arguably the two best defensemen in the league, Karlsson had the edge, assisting on both goals and finishing with an even +/- rating. I had to double-check because that didn't make much sense, but he had left the ice after making the pass to Jean-Gabriel Pageau that led to the tying goal, so he got an assist but not a + on the play. Karlsson, whose ice time has been down a bit (about two minutes per game) from last season, played over 29 minutes (almost 12 minutes in the third period) as the Senators scratched and clawed to get the equalizer and Freddie Claesson didn't see much ice. Doughty played just under 26 and a half minutes, also finished with an even +/- rating and was held off the scoreboard.
So the Senators win another one, one that they could have been out of early but found a way to grab two points, this time against a quality opponent. And they scored more than one goal in regulation to do it.
They will hit the ice next on Sunday, when "the one that got away but apparently really didn't because Guy Boucher was really our first choice", Bruce Boudreau, will bring his Minnesota Wild to Canadian Tire Centre.