In Ottawa, Nick Paul struck for two goals as the Senators got a 5-2 win over the visiting San Jose Sharks on Sunday night.
“It’s what I’ve been working for. It’s what I’ve been doing all summer,” Paul said. “It’s what I’ve been picturing. It’s nice to finally go that way and get some confidence.
“If we play like we did tonight, we have a good chance of winning every night. We played hard, we won all our battles, we were structured, we were hard to play against, and teams don’t like that.”
Craig Anderson made 34 saves in the win.
“Now we know what I believe 60 minutes looks like for our hockey team, and that’s what we’ve got to do if we want to continue to win games,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said.
Evander Kane and Kevin Labanc scored for the Sharks who dropped to 4-7-1.
“We’re 12 games in and there’s a handful of key guys for us that haven’t played well yet,” San Jose coach Peter DeBoer said. “So that’s on me to get them back to the level they need to be at.
“We’re playing from behind in a lot of these games, and instead of sticking with it and trusting the group and the system, everyone wants to step out and fix it themselves, but it doesn’t work that way. So eventually you have to learn that lesson.”
Brady Tkachuk, Anthony Duclair and Connor Brown scored for the Sens.
[WATCH: All Sharks vs. Senators Highlights]
Aaron Dell got the start but was pulled in the second intermission after yielding four goals on 22 shots.
“We gave up too many odd-man [rushes] again,” San Jose captain Logan Couture said. “I don’t think we spent long enough shifts in their end. We had some shots, but we didn’t get enough traffic around their goaltender and second opportunities that were there, we just weren’t in the right spots.”
Martin Jones, who made seven saves in the third period.
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