The Senators opened the scoring on their first power play of the night when Jakob Chychrun crept low on the right side of the offensive zone, creating a seam for Claude Giroux to deliver a pass across the net. Chyrchrun buried the one-time opportunity 6:51 into the contest.
Zack MacEwen scored on a slap shot from atop the right circle to double Ottawa’s lead less than six minutes later.
“They get that early power-play goal and that ignited them, it ignited the crowd, got us on our heels a little bit, and I thought for the next 10 minutes or so, (we were) a little sloppy with the puck, not tracking with our forwards and getting on top of their speed,” Appert said.
The Sabres were able to regain control by the end of the period and generate momentum with Thompson’s goal, which they rolled through the intermission. They held the Senators without a shot for more than seven minutes to open the second period and nearly tied the game on a put-back attempt by Jeff Skinner that was blocked by forward Tim Stutzle on its way to an otherwise open net.
Dominik Kubalik scored on Ottawa’s first shot of the period, taken with 12:38 remaining. Ridly Greig split the defense on the rush and centered a pass to the front of the Buffalo net, where Kubalik was able to flip a shot in off his backhand.
Mark Kastelic scored on a deflection to extend the Senators’ lead to 4-1 with 15.7 seconds left in the period.
“We outplayed them in the second period, but they outscored us,” Appert said. “And that’s the difference. They executed on some of their opportunities. We missed on some of our opportunities.”
The Sabres earned a 16-8 edge in shots during the third period but were once again held off the board. Artem Zub scored the Senators’ final goal into an empty net with 4:44 remaining.
“We have to score on our chances,” alternate captain Rasmus Dahlin said. “We have to get greasy in front of their net and get some rebound goals. Yeah, we have to be better.”
Here's more from the loss in Ottawa.
