Saturday night saw an All-Canadian matchup as the Ottawa Senators travelled west to take on the Vancouver Canucks. Both teams had been making headlines over the previous days as Ottawa was in the midst of a three-game winning streak and the Canucks appeared in the news that morning after their team made a few eyebrow-raising quotes about the relationship between star players J.T. Miller and Elias Pettersson. A win from either side would be a revelation.
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The first period began hot, as the Senators controlled play off the opening faceoff. Ottawa created many scoring chances and capitalized very early in the game, when Claude Giroux tipped in a Thomas Chabot shot to give the Senators the first goal of the game just over a minute in. The Canucks gained some momentum back after the goal but the Senators took that back when Michael Amadio got sprung on a 2-on-1 and passed the puck to a wide-open Shane Pinto and he made no mistake giving Ottawa a 2-0 lead. Shortly after they took the lead, the Canucks got on the board with a goal by Brock Boeser off of a great pass by Quinn Hughes. Vancouver tied the game in the dying seconds of the period with a goal by Hughes with 18 seconds left and the period ended with a 2-2 tie.
The second period began with the Canucks on the powerplay and the team started to find their game. They controlled play for the opening three minutes and got plenty of shots on Ottawa’s goalie. But that momentum was halted when Shane Pinto created some open space in the offensive zone and found the back of the net for his second of the game giving Ottawa a 3-2 lead. Nearly 10 minutes after taking the lead, the Senators surrendered the tying goal once again with a shot from the point from Hughes that bounced off of Senators goalie Leevi Merillainen and off the skate of Jake DeBrusk to bring the score to 3-3. Ottawa debated challenging the goal for a kicking motion but decided not to as the evidence was unclear.
With five minutes left in the period, a Senators penalty put the Canucks on the powerplay. But a long stretch pass sprung the Senators for an offensive chance and Josh Norris scored a shorthanded goal to restore Ottawa’s one-goal lead. Vancouver tried to tie the game before the end of the period but could not and the Senators took their lead into the second intermission.
Heading into the third period, the Senators were tasked with holding on to their narrow lead. The club did a good job limiting grade-A chances and tried to get a goal themselves to extend their lead. Vancouver was desperate to tie up the game and as the seconds ticked down the task got tougher. In the final five minutes of the period, the Canucks found the back of the net with a goal by Boeser to tie the game 4-4. With little time left in the game after the tying goal, the margin of error for both teams became slim. Both teams tried to end the game in regulation but to no avail and the game went into overtime.
In overtime, the Senators controlled play right off the draw and Jake Sanderson came down the left wing and slid the puck five-hole on Kevin Lankinen to win the game for the Senators. With that win, the Senators now have a four-game win streak and stay in a playoff spot while the Canucks continue their home-ice woes.
