Senators can’t rattle Sabres
The Ottawa Senators thought they played well enough to deserve two points.
The Ottawa Senators thought they played well enough to deserve two points.
But when you squander three one-goal leads, the last with 5:54 to go in regulation, you really don’t.
So maybe it was right that the the Buffalo Sabres, clinging to faint playoff hopes, got the two points they needed to stay alive by beating the Ottawa Senators 4-3 in a shootout.
Jason Pominville and Tyler Ennis, who also scored in regulation, beat Ben Bishop in the shootout, while only Daniel Alfredsson was able to beat Ryan Miller.
Marcus Foligno, called up on an emergency basis from Rochester on Friday, sent the game to overtime and eventually a shootout when he got the tying goal – and the first of his NHL career – at 14:06 of the third.
Before the game, Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff said he wanted Marcus to be “the best Foligno on the ice.” He got his wish.
Foligno chased down Sergei Gonchar behind the Ottawa net and stole the puck from him on a play that Ottawa coach Paul MacLean thought should have brought a penalty for slew footing. Foligno then bounced a backhander off Daniel Alfredsson’s right foot up and over Bishop.
“They got a fortunate bounce, obviously,” said Alfredsson.
“I didn’t even see it go in. I felt for sure I stopped it. It kind of came back the way it came from. It happens.”
Erik Karlsson had two goals for the Senators while Erik Condra had one while the team was shorthanded.
The two goals give Karlsson 18, one off the record for defencemen held by Steve Duchene.
Karlsson has already set team records for defencemen for points (69), assists (51), and multi-point games (19)
Nathan Gerbe got Buffalo’s other goal.
Nick Foligno didn’t know what to do when he saw his brother score.
“I was telling Alfie, I really didn’t know how to react,” said Nick.
“I was happy and pissed off at the same time. It was definitely a weird emotion, but as a brother I’m really happy for him.”
“That was a real good play on his part. I just hope he doesn’t do that too much against us.”
Bishop, who faced 41 shots, was philosophical about the loss.
“Sometimes the bounces are going to go your way, sometimes they’re not,” he said.
“They got a couple of unfortunate bounces. We had a couple of good chances and Miller made some good saves.
“But it’s still a big point.”
Karlsson, bothered by bumps and bruises, almost didn’t play. Matt Carkner took the pre-game warmup just in case.
But Karlsson played and said he felt OK.
“I feel good,” he said.
“There’s going to be some bumps along the way. But I’m pretty happy I played (Saturday).
“It feels good to score, but we didn’t come away with two points, which we probably should have.”
GAME FILE
WHY THEY LOST: They couldn’t hold on to three one-goal leads, including one with about six minutes left. That’s happened a lot this year.
STUD: Ryan Miller: He made 36 saves and kept his teammates in the game. He also had some luck. The Senators looked as if they had three past him in the second but he stopped two and the third went wide.
DUD: Zack Smith. Had just two shifts and 1:32 of ice time in the third. Played the fewest shifts (13) and had the least ice time, 10:43. Might be looking at another seat in the press box.
NO SHOT TOO SMALL TO TAKE: The cheap shot of the year goes to NHL.com and whoever posted Tara Holloway flubbing a line from the Canadian anthem. It’s a small world after all.
All Buffalo goals came from the Sens inability to clear the zone… They’ll need to work on that.
I take that back… I was looking at the highlights from another game.
Karlsson took another retaliatory penalty.
This needs to stop and as of yesterday because if they face the Bruins, Marchand, Lucic and company will be slashing and bruisning him all the time, knowing if he’s in the box or ejected…he’s not helping the team win.
Gonchar needs a longer stick and should have made the play at the blueline.He had the chance to clear the puck or angle foligno to the boards.The 2 first goals,Daugavins chose to go to bench when Buffalo had the puck in our zone and left his man alone for the first goal and on the second goal lost his stick and lost position on the goal scorer again.Get Konopka back in the game.
If Konopka is in this game the Senators are down a man for instigator in the first five minutes or so. He’s useless, the team knows he’s useless (outside of Murray who has hearts in his eyes for scrubs like this, good hard-working character guys, good character guys, real good guys) and the goal is to win. Time to move on from Zenon, it was a bad move.
Signing Zenon was not a bad move, but he was signed under the assumption that the team was going to struggle and that his character and pugilistic tendencies would give us something worth cheering. But I think he still has a place in the team, perhaps during playoffs. The refs certainly let things go (and when Zenon’s on the ice, I’m always afraid he will take an unnecessary penalty) and he’s good on faceoffs, and you never know if someone is going to get injured.
By this stage of the season the Sens should not get so flustered under pressure in their own zone. With the exception of Karlsson virtually everyone on the team is guilty of making boneheaded plays whenever they try to clear the zone. If they play like this in a first round series against the Bruins or Flyers it’ll be 4 and done. As much as Carkner gives up in terms of footspeed, he more than compensates by playing a sound positional game and being willing and able to clear people away from the crease – compare that to Kuba or Gonchar or Philips who seem to always leave a man open.
As for Smith, I remain convinced he suffered a concussion back in December/January – his game has nosedived since then and it looks like his brain is three steps behind the rest of his game. On the bright side let’s not forget this is a rebuild year so it’s hardly surprising the Bingo boys are struggling to keep up as games ratchet up to playoff intensity. If the Sens hope to make it past the first round I think they need to put Z-bad in the lineup.