The Senators were awarded the first power play of the game six minutes into the first period when Glenn Gawdin was called for holding Parker Kelly. During the power play Tim Stützle had a shot that beat Lukas-Dostal, but could’t beat the goal post and the Ottawa lead remained a single goal.
Parker Kelly was the next player to generate a scoring chance when with 9 minutes left to play in the first he found himself alone in front and was robbed by Dostal.
Generating only three shots in the first period the Ducks did almost tie up the game with four mintues left in the initial frame. Frank Vatrano watched Ducks teammates establish a cycle before sneaking out to the top of the slot and putting a one-timer just off the left post of the Sens net.
When the first period ended the Senators were leading by a single goal they also lead by 8-3 for shots on goal.
The second period was also a defensive battle with a combined 12 shots on goal. This time the Ducks led in the shots department 8-4 and they were the only team to put a goal on the board. Ryan Strome tried to find Vatrano in front of the net and instead bounced if off a Senators defender behind Mads Søgaard to tie the game less than 5 minutes into the period.
Despite several great chances including a Parker Kelly chance off of a turnover that went off the right post of the Anaheim net. Kelly was immediately hauled down by Matvei Michkov while the Senators forward was called for embellishment. The best chances came during a four-on-four, the Ducks goalie kept his team in the game.
The third period started off with another quick Anaheim goal when Alex Killorn tipped a tricky slap-pass Owen Zellweger into the Ottawa goal just three minutes into the final frame.
The first great Ottawa chance came on a give-and-go between Mathieu Joseph and Stützle with 12 minutes left in the period. He cruised past both Duck defenders and almost beat Dostal who used is left pad to maintain his team’s lead.
The Ducks came back the other way on the same shift and Alex Killorn had a short break in alone on Søgaard who returned the favour with a left pad save of his own.
Ottawa battled gallantly to tie the game, but couldn’t seem to crack Dostal
With 7:21 remaing Jake Sanderson had a seeing-eye one-timer creep through Dostal’s legs but slid just wide of the net. Again with two and a half minutes left to play Shane Pinto looked to have tied it up when he floated a pass from the corner toward the goal but it hit the outside of the net and the Sens still trailed by a goal.
As the game wound down the Senators tried to pull the goaltender for an extra attacker. However, a turnover at centre ice caused this chance to result in a too many men on the ice penalty for Ottawa. Despite being down a man the Senators pulled the goalie to create a chance to tie the game.
Stützle created just that chance when he picked up the puck in his own end and went coast-to-coast with a beautify deke to get between the Anaheim defence. However, once he got to the crease he couldn’t beat Dostal. Nor could Jakob Chychrun on the rebound and when the puck went the other way Thomas Chabot was force to take a penalty to stop a potential empty net goal. Despite being on a 5-3 the Senators were able to gain control, pull the goalie to get to 5-4 and create two chances late, but it wasn’t enough.
"After my last stint I realized I don't need to change anything, I just need to play like myself and play with confidence," said Mads Sogaard during his postgame media. "I've been doing that, it's a step in the right direction. Having one game with 40 shots and one game with 15-16 shots it's two very different games to play so for me it's a good learning moment and I'm just trying to get better and try to be the best I can for the team."
