"The encounter was a victory, but we've shown it as an example of what not to do." - Charlie in Top Gun
That quote pretty much sums up the Ottawa Senators shootout victory over the Calgary Flames on Wednesday night. Its a good thing there are no style points because both sides played an ugly game.
But two points are two points, and it will go down as their first home win of the season and in snaps a 4 game winless skid, including the first 3 games of the 4 game homestand.
Bobby Ryan scored a goal with the goalie actually in the net for the first time this season, Zack Smith scored a goal on a move and release that would have Mike Hoffman proud, Kyle Turris scored his team-leading 5th of the season and Mika Zibanejad scored the shootout deciding goal so it wasn't all doom and gloom. But on the whole, the Senators were fortunate to come away with the two points.
Calgary-Ottawa games at the Canadian Tire Centre have proved exciting over the past couple of years, as it was the Flames who overcame a 4 goal third period deficit last spring to win in one of the biggest collapses of the season. Last night was a sleeper through 2 periods, with both sides making countless mistakes and neither side really showing they wanted the win.
It was a see-saw battle that saw each team hold the lead twice, and it was tied on 4 different occasions. The third period saw no shortage of action, with 5 goals (and pretty much a 6th as the Senators scored late in the second after they took the intermission early due to a broken pane of glass.
Craig Anderson was pretty average but made a tremendous stop on Johnny Gaudreau in overtime, flashing a quick glove to steal the winning goal and extend the game. The first goal was a stoppable shot over his glove hand, but you can't really fault him for the knuckleball from Kris Russel that would have made R.A. Dickey jealous, Joe Colborne's tap in after a Karlsson turnover led to an odd-man rush or the bounce-shot from Sam Bennett that tied the game at 4. He did just enough for his team to come away with a win.
It was the 4th time in 9 games (44%) that the Senators have gone to a shootout ( with a 2-2 record), a place where only 9 games (out of 136 - or 6.6%) have gone so far this season. No other team has played in more than 2 shootouts, and 18 of the 30 teams have yet to participate in one. So while 3-on-3 OT has been good at resolving a lot of games so far, the Senators have yet to find a resolution either way despite the increased excitement and scoring chances provided in the format.
It was a game to forget for the Senators blue line, who despite the return of Marc Methot were out of synch most of the night and all were guilty of horrendous turnovers or simply bad plays. It makes no sense to single any one out, because there is enough blame to spread around the whole group. Somehow Methot and Erik Karlsson were each a +3, but I don't think that one will be going on either of their personal highlight reels.
It looked like the injury bug was going to take the bite out of another Senators player following a collision between Bobby Ryan and Flames goalie Jonas Hiller, which did force Hiller from the game. Ryan left for a bit but did come back later in the period, after his questionable goaltender interference penalty on the play had been served.
While there has been a lot of doom and gloom over this team for its lukewarm start, the fact is that they are in the mix and on a solid pace despite the fact that the team and its fans believe there is a lot more in the tank that hasn't shown itself yet. It certainly hasn't been pretty, but at least for the time being two ugly points count just as much as two points earned in a dominant win. It would just be a whole lot more fun to see the Senators mix in one of the latter after so many of the former so far this season.
Up next is the home and home with the Red Wings, a spooky time for the Senators as they play in Detroit on Friday before a Halloween tilt on Saturday night. Fans will be looking for treats more than tricks for sure this weekend.