Senators found a way to win in Seattle, now must do it in Vancouver
What will the Ottawa Senators do for an encore?
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As they prepare for back-to-back road games Saturday night against the Vancouver Canucks and Sunday against the Calgary Flames, the Senators face another in a long line of “must wins” in the final stretch of the National Hockey League season.
The Senators found a way to overcome surrendering a three-goal lead with a third-period comeback for a 5-4 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night, moving them with four points of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the final wildcard spot in the Eastern Conference with 18 games left.
Alex DeBrincat scored the winner with 2:23 left in the third period after alternate captain Claude Giroux had tied it up at 4:01, not long after Seattle took the lead.
“We kept our composure and kept playing our game,” Giroux told reporters in Vancouver on Friday. “When we had our chances, we were able to put them back in the net. At the start of the year, we weren’t winning those games, but we’re finding ways to win.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s ugly or it’s nice, you’ve just got to find a way to get the points. Everybody was pretty dialled in.”
Determined to play meaningful games in March, the Senators have put themselves in that position, but there isn’t a whole lot of time to enjoy Thursday’s victory with two more crucial games scheduled for this weekend.
It’s a difficult stretch overall for the Senators, with eight of the next 10 games against teams currently in playoff position.
While many wrote the Senators off a couple of months ago, they have gone 17-10-1 in the 28 games since Jan. 1. Even so, they’ll have to step up that pace to 12-5-1 in the final 18 games if they want to get to 95 points.
That won’t guarantee a spot in the postseason, but it should keep the Senators in the conversation. Their best bet is not to look at the big picture, and the only way to control their own destiny is to keep winning.
The site MoneyPuck.com lists the Senators’ odds of making the playoffs at 20.9 per cent, even after Thursday’s win.
Head coach D.J. Smith and his staff found a recipe for success, but there are still hurdles ahead. The good news is that the Senators have leapfrogged four teams that ranked ahead of them less than a month ago and were in ninth place in the East as of Friday morning.
Coming off a 5-0 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday in the first game of the road trip, they needed to find a way to bounce back and the win in Seattle was about redemption in a lot of ways.
The Senators could have thrown in the towel when they let slip the three-goal lead they built in the first period, but didn’t.
“I thought we just showed good resilience,” said veteran defenceman Nick Holden, who had two assists. “They’re a good team, they showed that, and they even took the lead. We just stuck to our game and got the result we wanted.
“At this time of year, you have to have that in your game. All the games down the stretch are going to be tight games and you need to be able to play in those games. You’ve got to stick with your system and know that they’re going to have opportunities. You can bend, just don’t break, and I think we showed that (in Seattle).”
The Senators were back on the ice Friday afternoon in Vancouver to prepare for the next two games. Vancouver has received a bounce from the hiring of new coach Rick Tocchet, posting a 6-3-1 record in its last 10, while the Flames are four points back of a wildcard spot in the West.
The Senators are also without veteran goalies Anton Forsberg and Cam Talbot because of injuries, but Mads Sogaard made 29 stops in Seattle and he’s expected to start against the Canucks, while Kevin Mandolese will likely start in Calgary.
Those two have only 10 games of NHL experience, combined, but Sogaard has so far shown maturity in his game and Mandolese also seems to have a calm approach. They’ll need it.
The key for the Senators is to play well in front of them and limit scoring chances for opponents.
“We’re on the outside looking in right now, and we want to make the playoffs,” Giroux said. “Mentally, we can’t let ourselves get caught up in watching the standings every night … even if I do watch it every night. You just have to worry about yourselves. If you get your points, you’re going to climb up the standings.”
