Oilers hand Sens another loss

In Ottawa, the Senators’ season just goes from bad to dreadful.

On Tuesday night, the Sens outshot the visiting Edmonton Oilers, 4-2-24, and still came up empty in a 3-2 loss.

Mikko Koskinen made 40 saves for the Oilers to earn the win.

“They threw a lot of pucks at the net in the third period,” Oilers head coach Dave Tippett said of the Senators, who outshot Edmonton 16-7 in the final 20 minutes. “[Koskinen] made a couple of real key saves at the right time to preserve the two points for us.”

Evgenii Dadonov scored in the third period to trim the Oilers’ lead to one goal, and Connor Brown scored to open the game for a 1-0 Ottawa lead.

“I thought right from the get-go we were jumping,” Senators head coach D.J. Smith said. “I thought in the third period we had a great push. I thought we were probably the better team all the way through the night.”

The Oilers scored three straight goals to take a 3-1 lead on Tyson Barrie‘s marker in the middle frame.

“It’s tough,” Barrie said when asked how difficult it is to win against the same team four times in a row. “They played us hard, really hard the last two games. They’re obviously a good, hard working, young team. They beat Montreal [on Thursday], so anybody can beat anybody.”

Edmonton improved to 8-7-0.

Darnell Nurse got the Oilers’ offense untracked when he tied the game up in the first, 1-1.

Evan Bouchard scored in the first period to give Edmonton a 2-1 lead.

“It helps a lot,” Bouchard said when asked what goals from defensemen does for the confidence of the blue line. “Not just on the back end, but I think it helps the forwards out too, knowing that we’ll get shots through to the net and try to help contribute in any way we can. But when you get goals from the defense, I think it’s just an extra bonus for the team.”

Marcus Hogberg made 10 saves and yielded all three Oilers goals. He was given the hook after falling behind, 3-1.