In Ottawa, the Senators suffered their sixth straight loss, 6-2, at the hands of the Vancouver Canucks on Wednesday.
Thatcher Demko made 19 saves in the Vancouver win.
The Canucks improved to 8-14-2.
“We were due for one of those nights for a long time,” Vancouver’s Bo Horvat said. “I think we’ve been playing a lot of good hockey. For us to kind of have a night like that where a lot of guys get on the score sheet definitely gives us confidence.
“But at the same time, we can’t get complacent with that too and get comfortable and think that that’s going to happen every night.”
Brady Tkachuk and Adam Gaudette scored for Ottawa.
“It was definitely good to get on the score sheet, but I think nerves settle in a little bit,” Gaudette said. “It’s been about a month since I played last (Nov. 9) and I just didn’t feel quite right out there, but I’ve got the first one out of the way now.
“Now I’ve just got out and not think and play hockey and play my game to be able to help this team win.”
The Senators dropped to 4-15-1.
“It’s really frustrating,” Ottawa head coach D.J. Smith said. “Right now, we’ve just got to stick together and find a way out of this.”
Tanner Pearson gave Vancouver a 1-0 lead at 1:38 of the first.
“When you go into a room after the game and you win like that, your guys are excited,” Vancouver head coach Travis Green said. “I haven’t felt a whole lot of letdown from our team. I think they know that they’re right there. They’ve been there.
“We’ve lost so many one-goal games (eight) that it’s not like they’ve just been losing and being outplayed. They’ve done a good job keeping their belief and their confidence level high.”
Tanner Pearson,Tyler Motte, and Luke Schenn scored for the Canucks as they were building a 3-1 lead.
“I just tried to kind of move my feet a little bit, I had a step on [Senators forward Alex Formenton],” Schenn said. “A bit of a chip shot over the glove there. They don’t happen very often. I don’t know when the last time was that I scored one like that. Usually, I’m checking to see whose shin pad it went off of before it goes in.”
Bo Horvat and Alex Chiasson added to the Senators’ grief with a pair of strikes for a 5-2 lead.
J.T. Miller added power play goal late for the 6-2 final.
Filip Gustavsson made 29 saves in the Ottawa loss.
“I think we play hard most nights,” Smith said. “Tonight, I thought we played really hard until it got bad, and then we got really frustrated. So, as a coach, all you can do is push the guys to go harder tomorrow.”
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