Hogberg makes 25 saves for Senators in victory against Canucks

OTTAWA -- Marcus Hogberg made 25 saves for the Ottawa Senators in a 2-1 win against the Vancouver Canucks at Canadian Tire Centre on Monday.

It was Hogberg's first start since April 7 and first win since Feb. 15.
"That's [Hogberg's] best game of the year, for sure," Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. "Didn't have a lot of action in the second but made big saves."
Brady Tkachuk had two assists for the Senators (18-27-4), who are 4-1-0 in their past five games. Ottawa has won two of three in the four-game set with the Canucks, which concludes Wednesday.
"It's been a blast, not just learning how to win, but learning how to win against a desperate team who needed these points to stay in the playoff race," Tkachuk said. "I think our team is learning so much through this experience. It's definitely a better atmosphere and more fun when we're winning."
Olli Juolevi scored, and Braden Holtby made 25 saves for the Canucks (19-20-3), who lost for the second time in eight games against the Senators this season.
"It's a fine line at this time of the year between winning and losing," Vancouver coach Travis Green said. "I thought we made a couple of mistakes that we'd like to have back. We talk to our team a lot about how every shift matters, especially at this time of the year. Every turnover, every puck battle matters. I thought we let our foot off the gas, defended a little slow in the second. We made a couple of soft plays on the wall and we lost the momentum for about 7-10 minutes."

Vancouver is in sixth place in the seven-team Scotia North Division, 10 points behind the fourth-place Montreal Canadiens with five games in hand. Ottawa is seventh, 11 points behind Montreal. The top four teams will qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
"If we're going to have any chance of getting in the playoffs, we can't worry about what Montreal does or any of the other teams," Holtby said. "We need to believe that we can win every game. In the end, hopefully that's enough. But right now, it's moving on to the next game and figuring out how we're going to get two points there."
Josh Norris elected to shoot on a 2-on-1 with Tkachuk and scored with a wrist shot under Holtby's blocker to give the Senators a 1-0 lead at 10:22 of the first.

Juolevi's point shot beat a heavily screened Hogberg to tie it 1-1 at 14:07.
"The second period cost us the game," Juolevi said. "We didn't skate well, we didn't move the puck well."
Drake Batherson took a no-look pass from Tkachuk in the slot and scored with a wrist shot into the top right corner to make it 2-1 at 11:41 of the second period. It was Batherson's fourth goal in the past five games.
"One of the things people don't talk enough about with Brady is how strong his stick is," Smith said of Tkachuk. "He wins a lot of stick battles, he can make plays in traffic, he can pick pucks off and he's much better on the rush than people give him credit for. They always think of this junkyard dog around the net, but he makes plays all over the ice."
NOTES: Goaltender Thatcher Demko was supposed to start for Vancouver but sustained a lower-body injury in the morning. Green did not have an update after the game. … Norris has 14 goals this season, second to Minnesota Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov (22) among NHL rookies. Norris has 12 points (six goals, six assists) in the past 11 games. … Tkachuk has eight points (three goals, five assists) in the past seven games.