In Ottawa Thursday, the Anaheim Ducks escaped their game with the Senators with a loser’s point because of a late goal from Ryan Kesler.
Kesler tied the game at 1-1 with less than a minute left in regulation.
“It was a weird game,” Kesler said. “The whole building seemed dead tonight. I think it was a product of what was on the ice. For whatever reason, both teams seemed sluggish in the second period and both teams were playing defensively, so you’re not going to get a lot of shots.”
The problem for Anaheim was that the Sens’ Erik Karlsson struck for a power play goal just 32 seconds into the extra session.
The win snapped a six-game skid for the Senators.
“I’ll be honest with you,” Senators coach Guy Boucher said. “We never talked about the streak. We just talked about the opponent, what we wanted to do and what we wanted to do after the games we played well. The last two games were good games that slipped away in the third, and we wanted to make sure that, in the third period, we had a solid one, and we did.”
Mike Condon made 30 saves to get the win for Ottawa.
“It’s been a while,” Condon said. “It’s a good feeling. It’s good to have the building cheering at the end of a game. It’s good to see the guys with smiles on their face. It’s been a rough stretch here, so it feels nice.”
Bobby Ryan scored early in the third period to break a scoreless tie and give the Senators a 1-0 lead.
Ottawa improved to 16-24-9 with the win as players begin to audition for their next teams as the trade season looms ahead.
[WATCH: All Ducks vs. Senators highlights]
Ryan Miller made 30 saves in the loss.
“He held us in there when they had their chances,” Anaheim head coach Randy Carlyle said of Miller. “That’s what a veteran goaltender is capable of doing. He didn’t get rattled, and I thought that the hockey game was up for grabs.”
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