OTTAWA — The Ottawa Senators know it wasn’t pretty, but the only thing that mattered was finding a way to win and they did that Thursday night as they defeated the Seattle Kraken 4-3 in overtime.
With a 3-0 lead going into the third, no one expected this one to need extra time, but a short lapse by the Senators was all the Kraken needed to gain momentum and make a game of their first visit to the nation’s capital.
Josh Norris, playing his 100th career game, scored the winner on the power play after Tim Stutzle was able to draw a tripping penalty in overtime.
Norris also scored the first goal of the game, which ties him with Alexei Yashin for most goals (39) by an Ottawa player in their first 100 career games.
“That’s a cool stat,” admitted Norris. “They’ve put me in great spots since the first day I got here, even when I got called for those three games my first year pro so I’ve had a lot of help along the way and it’s a cool milestone and just want to keep going.”
The Kraken scored three unanswered goals in the third as the Senators seemed to think the game was in hand, and while Senators coach D.J. Smith could smile at the end of the game, things likely would have been different had his team lost.
“As a coach, you're always aware that it wasn't a 3-0 game,” said Smith. “The fear is that, and we seen it, we laid off and started making high-end, high-risk plays thinking the game was over, and then we got exactly what we deserve, but credit to us to find a way to win, and we'll take that, but more importantly it's a learning lesson.”
Brady Tkachuk and Parker Kelly also scored as Anton Forsberg made 30 saves in what is the first of a five-game homestand for Ottawa, who was coming off a disappointing road trip that saw them go 1-4-0.
“Obviously that can't happen,” said Tkachuk. “We dug in and found a way to win. Josh said after the game all that matters is winning, right, so it wasn't pretty, but we're just gonna learn from those little things that kind of we strayed away from so we'll learn and we'll get better because of it.”
The Kraken were happy to steal a point, but know there was no excuse for their play in the first 40 minutes.
“The first two periods are inexcusable,” said Ryan Donato, who scored the Kraken’s second goal. “I think we knew that. The momentum was dead; we needed something. Jared (McCann) had a big goal and once we had that feeling of, ‘We’re back in this,’ I think a lot of guys felt a lot better about the situation.
"I thought we put in a hell of an effort in the third period. Unfortunately, it ended the way it did, but that’s a testament to our character.”
Mason Appleton also scored for the Kraken, while Chris Driedger, originally drafted by Ottawa, stopped 23 shots.
The Kraken (17-37-6) are in the midst of a five-game road trip and have lost its first four games. They close out the trip Saturday in Montreal.
Seattle scored twice in a span of 36 seconds and completed the comeback at the 13-minute mark and had a couple good chances to win in regulation, but just couldn’t close things out.
“We just came alive, we played simple,” said McCann. “I know it sounds cliche at this point, but that’s the way we’ve got to play to win games. The first two periods were pretty bad, obviously. We had some bad turnovers and kind of left [Driedger] out to dry again.”
Leading 1-0 the Senators were able to extend their lead after 40 minutes.
Tkachuk made it 2-0 as he scored his 20th of the season early in the period as he was able to knock a puck down in the slot and score off his backhand.
Tkachuk joins Yashin and Martin Havlat as the only Senators players to hit 20-plus goals at least three times in their first four career NHL seasons.
Kelly made it 3-0 at the seven-minute mark as he took advantage of a Kraken giveaway and broke in alone and beat Driedger with a wrist shot.
Seattle had a goal called back as they were offside and 15 seconds later the Senators opened the scoring as Brady Tkachuk made a cross ice pass to Norris on the doorstep for his team-leading 21st goal.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 10, 2022.
Lisa Wallace, The Canadian Press
