In Ottawa, the Senators blew a two-goal lead in the third period t o the visiting Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday night.
Tim Stützle rescued the Sens when he scored 70 seconds into extra time to give Ottawa a 5-4 win.
“I think I was fighting it a little bit [during the losing streak],” Stutzle said. “I had chances every game, but in the end, [I’m] learning I’ve just got to stick with it. Obviously, I got frustrated there a couple times, but I’ve just got to stay with it. Great play by Drake [Batherson] and [Jakob Chychrun] to keep it in the zone.”
The Senators moved to 12-17-0.
It was the first win for Senators coach Jacques Martin.
“I thought for two periods, we were really, really good,” Martin said. “I thought we played more our style of hockey. I think we want to be a pressure team. We got a great performance out of our first line tonight, and overall, I think we did a much better job.”
Anton Forsberg made 30 saves in the win..
The extra session became necessary when the Pens scored twice in the third period to tie the game, 4-4.
Drew O’Connor made it 4-3 at 1:51 of the third period.
Kris Letang tied it at 17:34 of the third leading to the extra session.
The Penguins dropped to 15-13-4.
“I thought we raised our level of urgency, and we raised our level of execution [in the third period],” Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “But like I said, the first 40 minutes were all special teams, so how many even-strength shifts in a row were there before there was another power play or a penalty kill on either side? There was no flow in the game in the first 40. I thought we competed hard in the third.”
Ottawa grabbed a 1-0 lead on a strike by Chychrun at 11:07 of the opening stanza.
“Feels like we got rewarded for playing well,” Chychrun said. “It would have been nice to keep it out of overtime, but two points is two points.”
Pittsburgh’s Lars Eller scored off the power play at 14:31 of the first to tie the game, 1-1. The Pens had one goal on seven power play chances in the match.
“They just weren’t in sync, you know?” Sullivan said of his team’s power play. “They weren’t in sync, we didn’t execute, we didn’t make the right decisions. We thought we were making traction there. The power play has scored a lot of goals for us as of late. Tonight, I just didn’t think we were sharp.”
Ottawa’s Josh Norris restored the Senators lead, 2-1 at 15:01.
Brady Tkachuk extended the Sens lead to 3-1 on a tap in at 2:10 of the middle frame.
“It was a huge relief and just an awesome feeling,” Tkachuk said. “Forsberg made some huge saves to keep us in it, so it’s a huge relief. And we get Jacques his first win [in] part two with us.”
Rickard Rakell scored his first marker of the season at 4:59 of the second to trim the Pens’ deficit to 3-2.
“It feels good to get the first one,” Rakell said. “Hopefully, it just takes some weight off my shoulders, and I can just start helping out our team a little bit more.”
Ottawa replied with a strike by Erik Brannstrom sat 7:30 for a 4-2 advantage headed to the third period.
“I think we battled hard,” Stutzle said. “I think everybody played hard. Every line played strong, and I think [Tkachuk], Josh and [Giroux], when they had the puck in the [offensive] zone, were really dangerous.”
Alex Nedeljkovic made 21 saves in the loss.
“Honestly, we just kind of turned it up to another level. We brought it in the third,” Nedeljkovic said. “We threw pucks on net, we got a couple of good bounces, [Letang’s] seeing eye shot. I think there was just an intensity that wasn’t there in the first two periods. … It wasn’t our best, the first two periods.”
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