GAME RECAP: Senators 6, Oilers 4

EDMONTON, AB - Centre Josh Norris posted a pair of goals and the game-winner on Saturday night as the Ottawa Senators scored five in the third period to overturn a two-goal Oilers lead and escape Rogers Place with a 6-4 victory on Saturday night.
The Oilers held the 3-1 advantage through 40 minutes after Kailer Yamamoto and Brendan Perlini scored in the second period to back up Zack Kassian's fifth goal of the season, but a five-goal surge from the Senators in the final frame flipped the result in favour of the visitors to sink the Oilers to their sixth-straight loss and 18-15-2 on the season.

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FIRST BLOOD

With Tyson Barrie in the box for batting the puck over the glass, Norris made the most of the Oilers defenceman's mishap when he beat Stuart Skinner clean through the five-hole from inside the left circle midway through the opening period for his team-leading 15th goal of the season after Brady Tkachuk unlocked the Senators centre with a quick pass from the opposite corner.

PLAY OF THE GAME

Leon Draisaitl picked up the puck after helping win a puck battle with Jesse Puljujarvi and sauced it over to Kassian in between the hashmarks as the first period and a two-man advantage for the Oilers was set to expire, but the finish might've been sweeter.
The big forward avoided the Senators defender who went down to block the shot by sending it back across goal and past Matt Murray, nestling his fifth goal of the campaign inside the left post with 48 seconds to go before the intermission.

SAVE OF THE GAME

Moments earlier on that Oilers 5-on-3 opportunity, Murray sprawled out to make a massive stop on McDavid and keep Ottawa ahead for a brief moment. The Senators keeper might've been the main culprit for leaving the net as wide open as it was by holding up Hyman at the left post before McDavid's chance, but it was a sharp save nonetheless as he quickly slid over to deny the Oilers captain.

TURNING POINT

Norris' second of the contest came at a crucial time when his shot on a late powerplay from a similar position to his first tally went down as the game-winner when it beat Skinner into the lower-right corner and lifted the Senators to a 5-4 lead.
Ottawa strung together a five-goal third period, putting the game on ice with a 180-foot empty-net goal from Zach Sanford, to overturn a 3-1 deficit through 40 minutes.

PARTING WORDS

McDavid following the loss on what's missing in the group:
"I wish I had an answer. We've talked it over and over again in that room, and obviously, we haven't found an answer yet. That being said, we've got to show up and we have three practices here before our next one to get back to work."

Kassian on the Oilers letting a two-goal lead slip and the team's current challenges at this point of the season:
"Hockey's a weird game at times. (This is) the same group at the beginning of the year that was one of the best teams in the league, and now we seem like we're finding ways to lose when we need to find ways to win. That snowball going downhill, I don't think that's an excuse anymore. We had that break and all those postponements that were a perfect time to regroup. We did that and had a good week of practice, everyone was having fun, we were upbeat and were heading into the game feeling good about ourselves. We get out of the first period with a draw, have a good second period, and then we lay an egg in the third."

Head Coach Dave Tippett on his assessment of the game:
"We're just finding ways to lose. We did a lot of good things in the game, but there are some areas (of concern). We took a penalty early in the game and gave up a goal. We took a penalty late in the game and gave up a goal. There are some things in between, lots of the things we've been talking about trying to do that we did, but ultimately, we're finding ways to lose games."
"We thought the break would help us with that, and it did I guess for two periods. Even in the third period, we come out and get a great chance early and another great chance before they scored. If we find a way to capitalize on maybe one more of those, we push the game along, but that's the way it's going for us right now."