The sweep of the NHL from Monday night starts in San Jose where the Ottawa Senators Zack Smith scored a shorthanded goal with just over five minutes left in regulation to knot the game with the Sharks at three all.
The game went to the skills competition before Mika Zibanejad netted the winner for the Senators.
It was the second straight game where the Senators rallied from a deep deficit to win; they beat the Los Angeles Kings earlier in the weekend to win.
“Anytime you can do that and stick together it’s a good thing,” Smith said. “It’s nice for us to know that when we get down a goal or two we’re going to come back, and it’s almost the mentality we had last year where you just know you will tie it up at some point in the third and see what happens in overtime.”
Max McCormick and Bobby Ryan scored for the Senators in regulation.
Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl and Matt Nieto scored for the Sharks in regulation.
“We have been playing great lately,” Nieto said. “We’ll take the point and move on. They found a way to score in the shootout.”
Alex Stalock made 14 saves on the night through overtime.
“We did a lot of things right,” Sharks coach Peter DeBoer said. “Nine of 10 times we win that game. This time we didn’t. Give their goalie credit. He came in here and got his first star.”
In St Louis, Paul Stastny had a goal and three assists in the Blues’ 5-2 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins Monday.
Brian Elliott made 36 saves in the win.
“I think typical of what’s going on in the games; we responded the right way in the third period where we just played heavier,” Blues coach Ken Hitchcock said. “We got on the puck, we competed for the puck, we played through the checking and we won the period because of it. … They outplayed us significantly in the second period and we had to have some type of response in the third and we did. We started to check better, we started to compete at a higher level and had success because of it.”
Chris Kunitz and Evgeni Malkin scored for the Penguins who are 2-7-1 in the back end of back-to-back games.
“We’ve got to find ways to win those games and were going to see more and more as the season goes along here and everybody’s in that position,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “We’ve just got to find ways to win. We’re not any different and if we want to push into the playoffs here, we’ve got to find ways to do that.”
Troy Brouwer, Alexander Steen, Vladimir Tarasenko, and Kevin Shattenkirk scored for the Blues who netted three unanswered goals in the third period to take the game.
“I don’t think it had anything to do with running out of gas,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We knew St. Louis was going to push back in the third period. We dominated the second period, and they’re a proud team, they’re a good team. We knew they were going to push back. We’ve just got to find a way to match the urgency through that stretch and control that momentum.”
Jeff Zatkoff made 20 saves in the loss.
In Sunrise, the Edmonton Oilers got two goals and three points from Taylor Hall and defeated the Florida Panthers, 4-2.
“It’s a nice feeling,” Hall said. “(You) play a lot of minutes, play on the top line, you’ve got to produce offense. It wasn’t an absolutely perfect night for our team or our line, but we managed to get some goals and get a lead early, which we hadn’t been doing lately.”
Jordan Eberle and Teddy Purcell also scored for the Oilers.
“It’s kind of nerve-racking, to be honest,” Purcell said. “Sometimes it’s easier just to play 2-on-1; you don’t think as much. I just kind of put my head down. I knew he was struggling to get back there and I might have had a little step on him, so I just tried to shoot it as hard as I could.
“Anytime you get up 3-0 and almost let it slip away, that’s not good for the confidence, and we’ve been having trouble on the road. They’re a good team. It was good to get that lead, and even at the end when they had a push, Cam made some big saves, guys were blocking, and it was nice to see that insurance goal go in.”
Cam Talbot made 30 saves in the win.
Reilly Smith and Quinton Howden scored for the Panthers who have now lost four straight after their 12-game streak.
“You always talked about when the streak was real good, we were playing good, it was 60-minute games, it was nothing like this,” Panthers coach Gerard Gallant said. “The work ethic is lacking for sure. Whether we’re tired or whatever it is, I’m not happy with the way we played the last couple of games, but we’ve got to get back at it and play our game again.”
Al Montoya took the loss on 20 saves.
“It’s pretty simple: We’ve got to get back on track,” Howden said. “The streak was fun and it was good, but you’ve got to be able to regroup and get back at it, and we haven’t done that yet. So we’ve got to come back better next game.”
Ryan Nugent-Hopkins suffered a hand injury and early reports suggested a long recovery time.
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