The Senators’ hopes of making the Stanley Cup Playoffs remain distant, but if you want to begin a miraculous rise in competition, beating the best team in the NHL is a good place to start.
Hot on the heels of Sunday’s loss to Vegas, the Senators played one of their most complete games of the season at the Canadian Tire Center (17,007) on Wednesday, beating the number one Colorado Avalanche 5-2.
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Tim Stützle and Artem Zub each scored two points for Ottawa, while James Reimer stopped 15 of 18 shots behind a fantastic defensive effort from start to finish.
As good teams do, Colorado wouldn’t go away. Trailing 3-2 late in the third period, the Avs pulled goaltender Mackenzie Blackwood, only to see the Senators respond with not one but two empty-net goals.
Brady Tkachuk, Tim Stützle, Nick Cousins, Ridly Greig and Claude Giroux all found the scoresheet for Ottawa. Parker Kelly and Valeri Nichushkin scored for Colorado, a team that has looked surprisingly lethal of late. The Avalanche have now lost five of their last seven games, although two of those losses came in overtime.
It’s the kind of all-around performance that Senators fans have long believed this team is capable of. The problem, of course, has been maintaining this level of play. What Ottawa needs to prove now is that it can deliver this type of effort consistently, rather than following it up with another three or four game losing streak.
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Ottawa completely shut down Colorado in the first two periods, allowing just four shots in each. After a scoreless first third, Nick Cousins opened the scoring and had one of his best games as a Senator. Artem Zub started Cousins with a stretch pass for a breakaway on the right wing, and Cousins headed to the net before backhanding past Blackwood.
But with the home team in complete control of the game, former Senator Parker Kelly tied the game at 1-1 with just under six minutes left in the second period, scoring his 11th of the season. But their potential momentum for the Avs was wiped out just 17 seconds later.
Tyler Kleven fired the puck the length of the ice, and after she glanced past a Colorado player to clear the icing, Greig pounced on the rebound on the end boards and fired a shot upstairs to restore the one-goal lead.
A little more than two minutes into the third period, the Sens made the score 3-1. Claude Giroux recovered the puck at the Colorado blue line while Tim Stützle turned on the jets to create a two-on-one. Stützle acted as a decoy, allowing Giroux to fire a wrist shot past Blackwood.
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Unfortunately, Giroux helped make that one less than two minutes later.
Trying to get the puck out of the Ottawa zone, he deployed on it, sending the puck directly to Jack Drury, who fed Nichushkin alone in front. Nichushkin broke Reimer with a backhand, making the score 3-2 and threatening to turn the night into a familiar scenario for Senators fans.
This time the ending was different. Unexpected.
Ottawa locked things down defensively, sealed the victory with two late empty nets from Tkachuk and Stutzle and cruised to a 5-2 victory.
This victory improves Ottawa’s record to 25-21-7 for 57 points. Boston still holds the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference with an eight-point lead over Ottawa.
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The Senators now have a few days off before hosting the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night at 7 p.m.
The road to the playoffs may still be long, but if the Senators want to make the impossible interesting, Wednesday’s performance is exactly what it needs to look like.
Steve Warne
The Hockey News-Ottawa
