takeaways: ottawa senators come up short in california sweep with loss to l.a. kings
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the ottawa senators weren’t able to pull off the golden state sweep.
the senators came up short in their dream of winning all three games in california after they dropped a 2-1 decision to the los angeles kings on monday night at crypto.com arena.
the only time the senators have swept all three games in california in franchise history was in feb. 2015. that was during the club’s improbable hamburglar run to the playoffs, and it wasn’t meant to be on this night.
only fabian zetterlund was able to score on the 26 shots kings’ goalie darcy kuemper faced.
“it’s two really good teams out there,” zetterlund said. “there was not much going on. we both played a really good game, and then they got the win in the end. it’s a tough loss.”
backup goalie leevi merilainen, making his first start since nov. 13th, had a solid effort, but a third-period powerplay goal by ottawa native brandt clarke turned out to be the winner for the kings.
the puck deflected off artem zub’s skate and into the net with 6:10 left in the game.
zetterlund’s second goal in his second straight game tied it up 1-1 at 10:49 of the third. he picked up a rebound and fired it by kings’ goalie darcy kuemper to get the senators on the board.
warren foegele broke the scoreless tie with his fourth of the season at 5:31 of the third on the 18th shot merilainen faced. he had no chance as foegele took a back-door pass and beat nick jensen to the puck.
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the senators were 3-7-1 in their last 11 games against the kings.
kuemper came into this game with a 7-3-2 lifetime record versus the senators with a 3.45 goals-against average and a .892 save percentage.
ready for primetime
the viewers on amazon prime may have had a tough time staying awake in this one.
through 40 minutes, these two teams had played to a scoreless tie. ottawa went 0-for-3 with the man advantage, but the kings hadn’t allowed a powerplay goal in six straight games coming into this one.
but to create more offence, the senators had to do a better job getting to rebounds because there weren’t enough second chances. the shots were 21-15 in favour of the senators after two periods, but it didn’t look like they were dominating this game one bit.
a lot of the western conference is about hard-nosed hockey.
rookie centre stephen halliday had a welcome-to-the-nhl moment in his second game. he was slammed hard into the boards late in the first by sam helenius and had to go to the room for repairs.
merilainen returns
merilainen made what you have to call a rare start on monday, especially with starter linus ullmark on pace to play 60 points a quarter of the way through the season.
meriainen made only his fifth start in the club’s 22 games and faced the kings for the first time in his career. he came into this game with a 3-1-0 record in his four appearances this season, with a 3.53 gaa and a .868 save percentage.
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“i thought leevi played great,” said winger drake batherson.
the senators and kings traded some chances in the first. merilainen had to be sharp because los angeles had the better opportunities.
merilainen made two big early stops on adrian kempe on a sequence nine minutes into the first. merilianen had a tough start to the year, but he’s playing with a lot more confidence and is challenging the shooters.
defensive battle
the last time the senators and kings faced off was 10 days ago, los angeles skated to a 1-0 victory at the canadian tire centre.
scoring chances were hard to come by that night, and former ottawa goalie anton forsberg recorded a shutout. this was a better game than that one to watch, but really, a mistake was going to be the difference.
this was the first time this season the senators had entered the third period tied 0-0. that set up three goals in the third.
“it was just a tight game. both teams checked well. they get a bounce at the end of the game, and what decided it was a bounce,” coach travis green said. “i don’t know if we had a lot of good looks, but we worked hard, exactly what we saw at home.
“we wanted to get more pucks into the paint, and i thought we did that. give their goalie credit, i thought he made some big saves, leevi played great, and it came down to a bounce.”
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the senators have improved their defensive play and came into this game having allowed 25 or fewer shots in four straight. that trend didn’t exactly continue in the first because merilainen faced 11 shots.
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