Game Report: Sens Fall 6-5 in OT to Avs
Your Ottawa Senators battled the Colorado Avalanche Friday night for 60 minutes to a 5-5 tie. Impressive for a Sens team that is sitting outside the playoff picture. But then the young stars of the Avs took their game to another level and finished the Sens 2:36 into overtime as Matt Duchene buried the winner. On the bright side, the Sens earn three out of a possible four points on their two-game road trip.
A few Sens had a great game while a few did not.
Erik Karlsson continues his stellar play as he opened the scoring for the Sens with his sixth of the year. Karlsson also had a game high 26:38 minutes of ice time. Since his two-game benching a few weeks ago, Karlsson has turned into Ottawa’s best defenceman as he leads the D-corps in points and is second on the team in scoring.
Matt Carkner finally broke the goose egg in his goal totals column on the year as he scored his first of the season with a slap shot from the point. Carkner has been keeping his game simple and finally got rewarded for his hard work.
Milan Michalek also had a great game as he was flying all over the ice. Especially in the first where he had four shots on net (the team had seven in total) and had a goal to bring his total to seven on the year.
Ryan Shannon had a great game to as he set up Michalek in the first and was bumped up to the Spezza line as a reward for his effort. Daniel Alfredsson also scored in his third straight game after having gone 10 games with a point. It seems the captain may be back.
On the negative side, Brain Elliott had one of his worst games of the year. Having to go in when planned starter Pascal Leclaire went down with an injury in the warm-up, Elliott was shelled for six goals on 25 shots. Having not won in his last five starts, Elliott needs to get back on track.
Ottawa’s three highest paid defencemen, Sergei Gonchar, Chris Phillips and Filip Kuba were a combined minus-6 against Colorado. Luckily for Ottawa that their other three D-man picked up their play and helped keep the Sens in the game.
Alex Kovalev seems to be back in Coach Clouston’s doghouse as Kovi was bumped from the Spezza line in favor of fourth liner Ryan Shannon. Kovi saw the third lowest ice time of the Sens and was a minus-1 on the night.
Here are the game highlights courtesy of NHL.com.
***Three Stars***
First Star: Erik Karlsson – led the D-corps and continues his outstanding point production.
Second Star: Chris Kelly – had two assists and played a solid all-around game.
Third Star: Milan Michalek – had a goal and was a horse on the ice.
The Sens played a good game as they hung with the young guns of Colorado for over 60 minutes. Poor goaltending and shaky ‘D’ led to their downfall, but Ottawa can be happy they picked up a point which was better than most expected. Ottawa plays Washington on Sunday in their second last game before the Christmas break. ‘Til next time, GO SENS GO!!!!!
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