In Ottawa, the Senators’ Jjakob Chychrun hit for a hit double on Saturday afternoon and had three points in a 5-2 win over the visiting Philadelphia Flyers.
Anton Forsberg made 19 saves in the Ottawa win.
“Everybody contributed,” said Tkachuk, who is Ottawa’s captain. “There’s a lot of players that played awesome tonight and that’s kind of what we needed for us as a team. And of course, it helped with the atmosphere that the fans provided. We’re going to need that all year.”
Brady Tkachuk also added a double for the Sens in the win.
“We defended a lot better,” Chychrun said, “and when we defend well it leads to offense, so that’s really kind of what we wanted, to get back on track here today is kind of limiting their chances. And we know it’s going to create chances for us off the rush.”
Ottawa went 3-for-5 on the power play.
“We don’t even give ourselves a chance by taking that many penalties,” Philadelphia coach John Tortorella said. “A highly skilled team, eight blocked shots (by the Flyers); it’s not a good recipe. And they had the puck most of the night.”
Chychrun scored early in the first period, and again midway through the second period for a 2-0 lead to Ottawa.
“We’re going to watch a lot of video on it, probably, and talk a lot about it,” Flyers forward Garnet Hathaway said of the penalty kill. “I think there might have been some hesitations. I take blame for that, too.”
Travis Konecny scored at 16:51 of the middle frame to trim to the deficit to 2-1 for the Flyers.
“I think the discipline, the stick penalties, and clearly in the first period we were a little bit excited there, but you can’t take those,” Smith said. “As the year goes on, you’re really going to wear your guys out and you’re giving the other team an opportunity.”
Just 21 seconds later, the Sens replied with a marker form Jake Sanderson for a 3-1 advantage.
“I know last year it kind of took me, like, 20 games or so to score my first,” Sanderson said. “So, it’s always nice to get it done right away.”
In quick succession, the Flyers replied with a goal just 18 seconds later from Cam York for a 3-2 score.
Tkachuk scored his first of the night with six scored with less than six seconds left in the middle frame.
“I had played that 2-on-1, was able to intercept it, and then when I went to spin up ice,” Sanheim said. “Tkachuk kind of spun away, so I thought I had more time, and [Giroux] kind of snuck in behind me and made a good play. That’s something I’ve got to bear down on in the last 10 seconds of the period. I’ve just got to clear the puck.”
Tkachuk hit his double with 92 seconds gone in the third on a power play for the 5-2 final.
Carter Hart made 26 saves in the loss.
“We’re not going to panic, but our penalty kill, our power play, our offense, our defense, we were outplayed in all categories tonight,” Tortorella said. “We’ll look at the tape and dust ourselves off and get ready for a game on Tuesday.”
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