In Ottawa, the visiting Vegas Golden Knights built a 3-1 lead in the first period and expanded it to 5-1 in the middle frame.
They very nearly let it get away from them as the Senators rallied with three straight goals to close the gap to 5-4 in the third period.
The Knights held on for their sixth straight win.
Logan Thompson made 42 saves in the Vegas win.
“Logan’s played well every game, so I expected him to give us another solid game,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “The numbers won’t necessarily be great for him at the end of the night, but I thought he made a lot of good saves. He was a good player for us.”
The Golden Knights improved to 102-0.
Mark Stone staked the Knights to a 1-0 lead in the first.
“That was not a perfect game from us by any means,” Stone said. “It wasn’t close to our standard, but some nights you’re not going to feel great, you’re not going to have that execution as a team, but when you find ways to win, that’s the difference between teams that win and teams that are on the outside. Last year, maybe we would’ve lost that game, but I think we’re learning.”
Claude Giroux tied the game in the first period with his first of two goals in the game.
“If you play like the way we played in the second and third period, you’re going to win a lot of games,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. “There’s no such thing as moral victories in sports, but you get that effort from the guys that we got tonight, and you’ll start winning a lot of hockey games.”
Tim Stutzle hit for a double as well; he and Giroux scored in the late second period rally and early third.
Chandler Stephenson and Reilly Smith also scored for the Golden Knights.
Ottawa dropped to 4-6-0.
Smith and Zach Whitecloud scored for Vegas to give them a 3-1 lead in the first period.
In the second, Stephenson pushed the lead to 4-1 off a shorthanded strike.
William Carrier added goal midway through the second for a 5-1 advantage.
“I thought we were opportunistic tonight,” Vegas forward Nicolas Roy said. “That was the difference in the end. It wasn’t our best effort overall, but we found a way to win.”
Giroux and Stutzle scored in the last half of the second to get it to 5-3.
“I’ve probably tried that over 500 times in my career and it never went in,” Giroux said. “When it went in, it was overdue. I get pretty excited when I see a goal like that.”
Ottawa’s last gasp was a strike from Stutzle in the third for the 5-4 final.
“They’re not all going to be pretty,” Cassidy said of his team’s performance. “We’re not a 60-minute team yet and we know that. I don’t think there’s any team in the league that has 60 minutes yet. So, we have to take the positives from it.”
Anton Forsberg got the start for the Sens and yielded five goals and made 14 saves.allowed five goals on 19 shots.
Cam Talbot relieved Forsberg midway through the middle frame and made 13 saves.
“Not the ideal situation to get my first action of the year,” said Talbot, who missed nine games with a broken rib. “But that’s what I work towards, to be ready when called upon. It’s five weeks’ worth of work to put into action out there.”
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