Duclair hat trick lifts Senators past Blue Jackets in OT

OTTAWA --Anthony Duclair completed his hat trick at 1:56 of overtime to give the Ottawa Senators a 4-3 win against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday.

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"[I'm] just getting the opportunity to prove myself every shift," Duclair said. "Sometimes I don't have a good shift or make a bad play or whatnot, but the big thing is I am right back out there next shift and I can prove myself, that it won't happen again. Compare it to the past, sometimes if I'd make a mistake or whatnot, I'm sort of glued to the bench. So, I'm happy to get continual opportunities."
Alexandre Texier scored twice, and Cam Atkinson scored for the Blue Jackets (12-14-6), who are 1-4-2 in their past seven games after going 5-2-0 in their previous seven. Joonas Korpisalo made 17 saves in relief of Elvis Merzlikins, who was pulled after allowing two goals on eight shots in the first period.
"[We] played hard," Columbus coach John Tortorella said. "[We] stayed with it and had chances to win it before we take that penalty [in overtime]. So, some good things there."

Connor Brown scored, and Anders Nilsson made 38 saves for the Senators (14-17-2), who are 2-0-1 in their past three games.
"He was good all night," Smith said of Nilsson. "If it's not for him, we're not sitting here, we don't win the game. It's that simple. But that's part of it; sometimes the goalie's got to steal you one. I think he did tonight."
Duclair scored with a wrist shot from the high slot to give the Senators a 1-0 lead at 2:16 of the first.
Atkinson scored on a breakaway to tie it 1-1 at 4:53. His forehand deke ended up in Nilsson's glove, which was not ruled a goal on the ice, but video review showed the puck completely crossed the goal line.
Duclair one-timed a pass from Artem Anisimov on a 2-on-1 to make it 2-1 at 12:05.

Nicholas Paul appeared to score for the Senators at 15:17 of the first, but the goal was overturned after the Blue Jackets used a coach's challenge for offside.
Brown finished a backhand deke five-hole on Korpisalo on a breakaway to make it 3-1 at 8:17 of the second.
Texier scored with a wrist shot from the slot to make it 3-2 at 4:44 of the third. He scored his second of the game when he one-timed a cross-crease pass from Pierre-Luc Dubois to tie it 3-3 at 11:31.
"We just battled back and climbed back into the game," Korpisalo said. "I think we were there, but the last period was significantly better than the first and second."

They said it

"When we play in groups of five, when we play together, when we're skating, when we're making passes, we're hard to play against. We showed that in the third period."-- Blue Jackets forward Pierre-Luc Dubois
"Last year and this year as well, we're a young team and we're developing our young guys. But that doesn't mean that we're throwing in the towel. We don't want to coast through this 82-game season. We still want to make a push for it. We're doing way better than people thought, so that's a positive sign." -- Senators forward Anthony Duclair

Need to know

The Blue Jackets were 0-for-4 on the power play. … Duclair has 10 points (eight goals, two assists) in his past six games. It was his third NHL hat trick and first since Nov. 18, 2017. ... Blue Jackets forwards Josh Anderson and Sonny Milano, and defenseman Ryan Murray each sustained an upper-body injury. Tortorella had no update after the game.

What's next

Blue Jackets:Host the Washington Capitals on Monday (7 p.m. ET; NHLN, FS-O, NBCSWA, NHL.TV)
Senators:At the Florida Panthers on Monday (7 p.m. ET; TSN5, RDS, FS-F, NHL.TV)