This is my final recap of the season, folks. I want playoff hockey, and I will do my part from now on.
We won’t know whether or not the Ottawa Senators have turned a corner until about the 20-game mark, but one thing’s for certain: for good and bad teams alike, there will be some truly depressing nights throughout the season. And despite a good effort against a tough team, this is most definitely a truly depressing night.
After leading for an overwhelming majority of the hockey game, the Ottawa Senators let that elusive fifth win in October slip away in the final three minutes, losing to the Vegas Golden Knights by a 6-4 score.
Ottawa had a much better start tonight than against Utah, with Adam Gaudette receiving a slick feed from Cole Reinhardt, in his second NHL game, from behind the net, and beat Adin Hill to open the scoring.
What a slick feed from @ReinhardtCole for his first @NHL point 🙌#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/OurVXC0de2
Ten minutes later, a Nick Jensen point shot was expertly deflected through Hill’s five-hole by Claude Giroux to double Ottawa’s lead.
Words cannot do justice to what @28CGiroux just did 🤯 Just sit back and enjoy!#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/6wOtlmDKWm
Ottawa had been dominating up until that point, but following a Jensen puck-over-glass penalty, Vegas established an increased presence in the Sens’ end, culminating with them tying the game in short order – Nicolas Roy found a hole in Ottawa’s coverage with plenty of time and space to beat Linus Ullmark, and shortly after, a point shot from Nicolas Hague which was going several feet wide deflected into the net off Jake Sanderson.
Nicolas Roy finishes off the beautiful passing play to make it 2-1! pic.twitter.com/lPc57NjGRK
Determined to stop the bleeding and inflict some damage back onto the Knights, Drake Batherson sent Tim Stützle down the wing, and a forced turnover found its way onto the stick of the former, to give Ottawa the lead again.
What a rip to make it 4️⃣ goals in the last 3️⃣ games for Drake Pa-Dabfin 🙌#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/uwnbhJoye8
The remaining 40 minutes, for the most part, saw Ottawa as the better team. Although Ivan Barbashev tied the game for Vegas 6:40 into the second period, an aggressive penalty kill by the Knights ended up backfiring, and Gaudette made no mistake in converting on an ensuing 3-on-2, for his second of the game to put the Sens up 4-3.
In case you didn’t know, @Hockey_Gaud has a wicked shot 🎯#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/UYMP2zgN9P
They actually wound up increasing the offensive pressure even further in the third period, but couldn’t get an insurance marker, which came back to haunt them late in the third. With Nick Cousins in the box for a foolish interference penalty, an Ottawa-esque tic-tac-toe play was finished by Tomas Hertl to tie the game at 4.
HERTL. WE’RE TIED LATE IN THE THIRD IN VEGAS 🚨 pic.twitter.com/mT4DXG4jg9
And as we all know, the Ottawa Senators aren’t allowed to get loser points, so Keegan Kolesar’s game-winning goal on a 3-on-2 rush came with just 2:11 remaining in regulation. Barbashev added an empty-netter and there’s your 6-4 final score. What had been so promising for so long turned into a disappointing regulation loss.
Keegan Kolesar puts Vegas up with their second goal in 60 seconds of game time!#VegasBorn pic.twitter.com/sle0L0Xf5j
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