Three straight games the Senators have gone to extra time and three straight games the Senators have come away with the win. The second night of a back-to-back the Senators will look to carry the momentum from a thrilling overtime victory over the Islanders into tonight's contest. Brady Tkachuk led the charge scoring a hat trick including the game winner to cross the 30-goal mark for the third consecutive season. Look for the Sens to capitalize on his hot hand and try to strike while the iron is hot.
The win against the Islanders kept the Senators brief playoff hopes alive for another day, though they still sit 14 points out of the last wild card spot with just 17 games to play with two games in hand on Detroit who holds that last spot. While the odds are slime, the right pieces are thriving at the right time to keep this fight alive for the Senators.
Joonas Korpisalo and Anton Forsberg have a combined 0.937% save percentage since March 9, helping the Senators go 3-0-1. Additionally, Tim Stützle is on a five-game point streak including three assists against the Islanders yesterday. Claude Giroux who recently in the media held himself accountable saying that he needed to contribute more offensively for this team had a breakout game against Columbus where he scored once in regulation and connected on a slapshot in the shootout to earn the Senators the victory.
Facing a formidable test against the Hurricanes penalty kill unit the Senators got a much needed boost to their power play against the Islanders finding the back of the net twice on the man advantage. If they want a chance against this Eastern Conference juggernaut they will have to carry that momentum into this contest.
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The Hurricanes are one of the most intimidating teams in the NHL right now as the Toronto Maple Leafs found out first hand last night. When it looked like the Maple Leafs had all but locked up the win, Sebastian Aho hit another level tallying two goals in the final 1:32 of regulation to send the game to overtime where the Canes were able to earn the shoot out win.
There's really nothing that this Hurricanes team doesn't do well. They rank eighth in goals per game (3.33), fourth in goals against per game (2.66), fifth in power play percentage (26.0%), and second in penalty kill percentage (85.7%) all while outshooting their opponents by an average of 7.2 shots per game. The weaknesses are few and far between with this group and they have only gotten stronger since the last time the Senators saw them by acquiring forward Jake Guentzel from Pittsburgh at the trade deadline.
With Pyotr Kochetkov getting the start last night, the expectation is that the hurricanes will likely start Frederik Andersen. Andersen's start means there is likely no risk of a repeat of the fireworks that we saw last time between Kochetkov and Tkachuk when Kochetkov dove at Tkachuk's skates to break up a penalty shot attempt.
