takeaways: ottawa senators hit the jackpot with shootout victory over vegas golden knights
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the ottawa senators rolled the dice by going without their helmets in the warmup on wednesday night in vegas.
the senators had lost six straight games in vegas and had to do something to change their luck, so the decision was made to go bucketless during the warm-up in sin city.
“it was just a little discussion over a team dinner last night,” defenceman jake sanderson told tsn’s kenzie lalonde after the second period. “we’ll see if it happens in the future.”
the last time the senators won in vegas was march 2, 2018, so desperate times call for desperate measures.
shane pinto scored the winner in the skills contest as the senators scored a 4-3 shootout victory over the golden knights to move their record on this road trip to 3-1-0 at t-mobile arena.
the senators owe linus ullmark a group hug because without his 32-save effort, the club wouldn’t have stood a chance to even get to ot. vegas goalie akira schmid was barely tested after the first and made 22 stops.
“ully made some big saves,” said pinto. “it was just a gritty win and a huge two points.”
the third period was spent hanging on for dear life for the senators. pinto scored in regulation, along with drake batherson and sanderson, who had three points in the first period.
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former senators’ winger mark stone, back from the long-term injury reserve list, erased the knights’ two-goal deficit on the powerplay to tie it up 3-3 at 6:40 of the third.
“it wasn’t pretty, but two points are two points,” said ullmark.
viva las vegas?
the knights came into this game with one of the longest active point streaks in franchise history, with an 11-0-1 record against ottawa.
that started on oct. 28, 2018, when the senators dropped a 5-3 decision in ot. ottawa’s only win in that stretch was on feb. 24, 2024, when the senators scored a 5-4 shootout victory.
this turned into a tough, physical battle between these two teams, but the knights got up off the mat. they owned the final 40 minutes and outshot the senators 11-5 in the third.
trailing by two goals heading into the second, the knights pushed back in a big way. the shots were 22-17 in favour of vegas through two periods because the senators weren’t nearly as strong as they were in the first.
jack eichel closed the gap to 3-2 with his 15th career goal and 35th point against the senators in 24 games. he took a pass down low and put it behind ullmark, who was out of position.
“they’re a really good team, and you can see why they’re one of the favourites to win the cup. to get two points in here was huge,” coach travis green said.
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setting the tone
for the ninth time in 10 games, the senators opened the scoring. this was a huge issue to start the season, but they’ve gotten that part of their game together, and that’s an aspect you need on the road.
the senators were up 3-1 after 20 minutes, thanks to a late goal by batherson with 16.2 seconds left in the first and a solid first.
brett howden closed the gap to one goal for the knights late in the first.
sanderson extended the club’s advantage to 2-0 when he fired a bomb from the point on the powerplay that schmid couldn’t see. that was sanderon’s fourth of the season at 13:04.
pinto, who bought the team dinner on tuesday after signing his four-year, $30 million u.s. extension, scored on the first shot when he fired the puck towards the net from a bad angle down low, and it bounced off schmid’s skate only 51 seconds into the game.
heavy workload
linus ullmark made his 18th appearance in the club’s net.
this has been the heaviest schedule that ullmark has played in his nhl career. it’s the first time in his career that he’s made 18 starts before dec. 1. last year, he played his 17th game on dec. 7, 2024, in the club’s 26th game.
it was the 299th start of his career.
“he was so good,” sanderson said of ullmark. “he was almost perfect tonight.”
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after a difficult start to the year, ullmark has gotten his game together. he went into the game in vegas with a 3-1-3 record in seven starts in november with a 2.37 goals-against average and a .899 save percentage.
the knights turned up the heat on the senators after falling behind, and ullmark made a lot of big stops. stone’s tying goal in the third came as the result of a bad bounce off tim stutzle’s skate into the net.
ullmark had no chance after howden ended up alone in front after taking a pass from mitch marner and pushing it home.
if not for ullmark, the senators aren’t even in this game. he made an unreal stop on eichel late in the third.
bgarrioch@postmedia.com
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