Ottawa downs Avs, 6-5, in OT

In Ottawa, the Colorado Avalanche got goals from Tyson Jost and Devan Toews in the third period to get even with the Senators at 5-5 on Saturday.

Brady Tkachuk saved the Sens with an goal in extra time to down the Avs, 6-5.

“I was just thinking, ‘Don’t toe-pick,'” Tkachuk said. “I was trying to get the getaway boots going there a little bit. But overall, just happy with the outcome. It was definitely an exciting win tonight.”

Tim Stutzle hit for a pair of goals for the senators.

“It was a good effort by our team,” Tkachuk said. “That’s a good team, and now we’ve had good efforts against two top teams. We’ve put in some great efforts, but I believe that we have more.”

Anton Forsberg made 26 saves in the Ottawa win.

“We don’t want to play that type of way against anybody,” Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog (goal) said, “no matter where they are in the standings, knowing that the second half of the year and down the stretch and in the playoffs it’s going to be 2-1 and 1-0 and 2-0 games in the playoffs. We know that we just can’t be giving up that many goals.”

Colorado dropped to 12-7-2.

“It’s a big point,” Colorado head coach Jared Bednar said. “I don’t love the game from us, but I love the resolve to stick with it and believe that we can come back and get the job done. It’s not easy down three [goals] against anybody. It’s not easy and it didn’t come easy for us tonight. We didn’t have a lot of power plays and we just kind of stuck with it.”

The Avs took a 1-0 lead off a goal from Darren Helm in the opening period.

The Sens replied with s strike form Tkachuk and Austin Watson for a 2-1 lead.

“I didn’t like the way we played in the first half of the game,” Bednar said. “We didn’t manage the puck very well. Both goal 1 and goal 2 against, they’re both turnovers, one in the neutral zone one in the [offensive] zone. We talked about how dangerous Ottawa is off the rush, they’ve got some get-up-and-go and they can make plays off the rush. And if we were able to take that away from them, then our chances of success go up greatly. We didn’t do that tonight.”

Josh Norris had a strike for the Senators.

“We’ve got to find a way to keep those pucks out at the end,” Senators head coach D.J. Smith said. “Good teams can clamp down, and we gave up a couple at the end.”

Alex Newhook also scored for the Avs.