Horvat scores twice, Canucks hand Senators sixth straight loss

OTTAWA --Bo Horvat scored twice, and the Vancouver Canucks handed the Ottawa Senators their sixth straight loss with a 6-4 win at Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday.

"It wasn't, maybe, the prettiest win," Horvat said. "But we've had a lot of good games where we haven't won this year. We owe a lot of thanks to our goaltender tonight, for sure, especially in the first couple of periods, keeping us in it."
Brock Boeser had an assist after missing six games with a hand injury, Elias Pettersson had a goal and an assist, and Spencer Martin made 37 saves for Vancouver (4-6-3), which is 4-1-1 in its past six games.
"We're just trying to be mentally tough," said Horvat, the Canucks captain. "It's been a mental grind for a lot of this year and a lot of mental lapses by us. I thought we stayed mentally strong tonight."
Vancouver has blown a multigoal lead five times this season, including a 4-3 shootout loss to the Nashville Predators on Saturday.

Tim Stutzle
had a goal and an assist, Drake Batherson and Claude Giroux scored, and Cam Talbot made 22 saves for Ottawa (4-8-0), which has not won since a 4-2 victory against the Dallas Stars on Oct. 24.
"We just didn't get the job done," Senators coach D.J. Smith said. "We looked very confident in the second period. We looked very confident in the first period, but then when you get into the third period, we just didn't make the plays we needed to make. We turned pucks over and we gave them two goals."
Batherson took a cross-ice pass from Alex DeBrincat and scored from the right face-off circle to give Ottawa a 1-0 lead 50 seconds into the first period.
"I've been in those situations a ton of times before," Martin said of allowing the early goal. "I didn't get here laying down. Just kind of kept it going with some confidence."

Horvat tied it 1-1 at 19:07, scoring after Ethan Bear's point shot hit him in front of the net. The assist was Bear's first point with the Canucks since being acquired from the Carolina Hurricanes on Oct. 28.
Travis Hamonic put the Senators back in front 16 seconds later with a slap shot from the top of the right circle at 19:23, but Ilya Mikheyev drove to the net around Hamonic and scored blocker side to tie it 2-2 at 13:50 of the second period.
Horvat put Vancouver ahead 3-2 at 1:16 of the third period, one-timing a centering pass from Conor Garland in front.
"I just kept getting [Horvat] the puck," Garland said. "He could've had a few more too. He's fun to play with. We talked a lot in the summer about playing together, and tonight was one of the first times we felt good about all of it."

Oliver Ekman-Larsson scored his first of the season on a point shot to extend it to 4-2 at 8:18 before Stutzle finished a give-and-go with DeBrincat on a power play to cut it to 4-3 at 14:03.
"It's definitely a tough one to swallow tonight because we did so many good things," Senators captain Brady Tkachuk said. "The last bunch of games here, we've been playing well. We just need to get over that hump. Like I've been saying, we have all the belief in the world that we're going to do it, that we're going to get it done. It's definitely frustrating, though."
Jack Studnicka extended it to 5-3 at 14:59, scoring his first goal with the Canucks after being acquired from the Boston Bruins on Oct. 27. He intercepted a pass from Ottawa defenseman Erik Brannstrom and had his shot go in off Talbot's glove.
Giroux scored on a shot from above the right circle on a power play to cut it to 5-4 at 17:09.
"We're not getting bounces," Batherson said. "We had a few slide through the crease, and then it seems like they get one chance and it goes in.
"I feel like we're playing pretty good. We had a lot of shots, a lot of chances, but the bounces aren't going our way. But I'm sure it will turn around here soon."

Pettersson scored an empty-net goal at 19:15 for the 6-4 final.
"Just to hang on, with everything we've gone through, mentally, just to get one into the house," Garland said. "We gave them a couple of chances to get back in it, but we battled hard and won."
NOTES: Horvat has 10 points (eight goals, two assists) during a five-game point streak. … Martin is 3-0-1 in four games this season, and 6-0-4 since his debut with Vancouver on Jan. 21. … Giroux has seven points (five goals, two assists) during a six-game point streak and five goals during a four-game goal streak. … Canucks defenseman
Jack Rathbone
had one assist in 13:13 of ice time after being a healthy scratch for three games. … Senators defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker had an assist, one shot on goal, two hits and one blocked shot in 17:27 of ice time in his season debut. … Vancouver defenseman Quinn Hughes has 10 assists during a seven-game personal point streak. … Canucks forward J.T. Miller had an assist to extend his point streak to seven games (10 points; five goals, five assists).