The Senators’ Stanley Cup playoff hopes remain a long shot, but if you’re going to begin a miracle charge back into contention, beating the best team in the NHL is a good place to start.
On the heels of Sunday’s beatdown of Vegas, the Senators played one of their most complete games of the season on Wednesday at Canadian Tire Centre (17,007), defeating the #1 Colorado Avalanche, 5-2.
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Tim Stützle and Artem Zub each recorded two points for Ottawa, while James Reimer stopped 15 of 18 shots behind a fantastic defensive effort from start to finish.
As good teams do, Colorado wouldn’t away. Down 3–2 late in the third, the Avs pulled goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood, only to see the Senators respond with not one but two empty-net goals.
Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stützle, Nick Cousins, Ridly Greig, and Claude Giroux all found the scoresheet for Ottawa. Parker Kelly and Valeri Nichushkin scored for Colorado, a team that has looked surprisingly mortal of late. The Avalanche have now lost five of their last seven games, though two of those defeats came in overtime.
This was the kind of complete performance Senators fans have long believed this team is capable of. The problem, of course, has been sustaining that level of play. What Ottawa must prove now is that they can deliver these types of efforts consistently, rather than following them up with another three or four-game losing streak.
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Ottawa completely shut Colorado down over the first two periods, allowing just four shots in each. After a scoreless opening frame, Nick Cousins opened the scoring and had one of his best games as a Senator. Artem Zub sprung Cousins with a stretch pass for a breakaway down the right wing, and Cousins drove to the net before tucking a backhand past Blackwood.
But with the home side in full control of the game, former Senator Parker Kelly tied the game at 1–1 with just under six minutes remaining in the second period, scoring his 11th of the season. But their Avs potential for momentum was snuffed out just 17 seconds later.
Tyler Kleven fired the puck the length of the ice, and after it glanced off a Colorado player to negate icing, Greig pounced on the bounce off the end boards and ripped a shot upstairs to restore the one goal lead.
Just over two minutes into the third period, the Sens made it 3-1. Claude Giroux picked up the puck at the Colorado blue line as Tim Stützle turned on the jets to create a two-on-one. Stützle acted as a decoy, allowing Giroux to wire a wrist shot past Blackwood.
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Unfortunately, Giroux helped to give that one back less than two minutes later.
Attempting to lift the puck out of Ottawa’s zone, he fanned on it, sending the puck directly to Jack Drury, who fed Nichushkin alone in front. Nichushkin beat Reimer with a backhander, making it 3–2 and threatening to turn the night into a familiar script for Senators fans.
This time, the ending was different. Unexpected.
Ottawa locked things down defensively, sealed the win with two late empty-netters from Tkachuk and Stutzle, and skated away with a 5–2 victory.
The win improves Ottawa’s record to 25-21-7 for 57 points. Boston still holds the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with an eight-point cushion on Ottawa.
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The Senators now get a couple of days off before hosting the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night at 7:00 p.m.
It may still be a long road back into the playoff picture, but if the Sens are going to make the impossible interesting, Wednesday’s performance is exactly what it has to look like.
Steve Warne
The Hockey News-Ottawa
