In Ottawa, the visiting Vancouver Canucks took a 2-0 lead on the Senators on Thursday night, surrendered the lead, and then scored three unanswered goals in a 5-2 win.
For the Canucks, the win was their fifth straight, and pushed their point streak to nine games.
Casey DeSmith made 28 saves in the win.
The Canucks improved to 10-2-1.
“I think we probably didn’t play our best game, but we found a way to get a win,” Vancouver captain Quinn Hughes said. “We had some guys step up in the second and third and Casey made some saves, so some things to take from it. But it’s another two points and we’re just going to keep moving on.”
Brock Boeser and Ilya Mikheyev staked the Canucks to the 2-0 lead.
Boeser scored just 15 seconds into the game for the 1-0 advantage.
“You’ve got to be ready to play when the game starts,” Senators coach D.J. Smith said. “We had a turnover on the first shift, and it ends up in the net. We had a turnover when it’s 3-2 and there’s lots of clock left, and it ends up in your net. Whether they’re bad bounces or whatever they are, you’ve got to take care of the puck.”
Mikheyev added his first of two markers on the night at 3:00 of the first for a 2-0 lead.
Ottawa dropped to 5-7-0.
“Nobody in here likes losing, and things haven’t been going our way,” Ottawa defenseman Jakob Chychrun said. “Nobody’s feeling sorry for us. We’ve got to dig deep here and keep working as a unit and get ourselves out of this hole.”
The Senators rallied to tie it, 2-2, with strikes form
Drake Batherson trimmed the deficit to 2-1 at 18:15 of the first.
“It’s tough, obviously. I don’t know what the exact answer is,” Batherson said of the home slump. “Obviously, we’re working hard. I think it’s just a matter of getting bounces and just playing a full 60 minutes. But for the most part, we’ve been right there and clawing back in games.”
Ottawa tied it midway through the second period on a goal from Artem Zub.
“Obviously, with the addition of Zub, you’re significantly better,” Smith said. “You can see the difference when he moves the puck, how much he has the puck.”
J.T. Miller scored at 18:08 of the middle frame to restore the lead to Vancouver, 3-2.
“It wasn’t our A-game, obviously,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said. “Give Ottawa a lot of credit; they’re a fast team. They rimmed a lot of pucks and we had a tough time on the rims, but [Miller’s] goal was big because they were coming. We had some good parts of the game near the last second half, but winning some games and not having our A-game, we’re going to take the positives on that right now.”
Mikheyev hit for double just ahead of the midway point of the third for a 4-3 advantage, and Elias Pettersson scored off the power play at 13:28 for the 5-2 final.
“We’ve got to make sure we play a 60-minute game,” Tocchet said. “It’s only like [13] games in, but teams are going to be ready for us, so we’ve got to make sure we match that desperation. Ottawa was desperate tonight, and they played a desperate game.”
Anton Forsberg made 11 saves in the loss..
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