Josh Norris, in just his sixth NHL game, scored his first career goal Tuesday night as the Sens fell 4-3 in overtime to the Winnipeg Jets at Canadian Tire Centre.
"It was nice to get the first one, obviously," Norris said. "It's something that you dream about. It's kind of unexpected but I'm happy it went in."
It may not have been the most picturesque first NHL goal, but hey, they all count the same.
With the Sens on the power play, Norris tried to center the puck to Brady Tkachuk but it hit the leg of Winnipeg d-man Josh Morrissey and came right back to Norris. He attempted the exact same play again but this time with a different result as the puck found its way past Morrissey and hit the back right leg of Jets goaltender Laurent Brossoit and went in at 4:41.
"I was excited and to be honest, just happy to get it out of the way," Norris said. "I tried not to get too high. I still wanted to play simple and do my thing and I thought I had a few good scoring chances right after that.
"It feels good but now it's something I don't have to think about."
Norris' goal gave the Sens a 1-0 lead over their Canadian rivals in what was the first of 10 meetings between the two sides this season.
Ottawa doubled its lead at 10:29 on Chris Tierney's second of the season as he got the faintest of touches on a re-direct after Connor Brown had initially re-directed Nikita Zaitsev's point shot. With the assist, Zaitsev has points in every game so far this season, with four assists to his name.
Winnipeg got on the scoresheet with 1:51 left in the first on Adam Lowry's first of the season as he tipped a Neal Poink shot past Matt Murray to cut Ottawa's lead to 2-1.
The Senators restored its two-goal lead at 11:47 of the second and it again came on the power play. Playing in his 550th NHL game, and his first as a Senator, Alex Galchenyuk hammered in a one-timer off of Mike Reilly's pass to make it a 3-1 lead.
"It's tough to be talking about your own game after a game like that," Galchenyuk said. "As for the goal, overall it was a nice play by the unit. Starts with a good draw by Step (Derek Stepan) and then we move it around pretty well and then Reills (Mike Reilly) makes a good pass to me and I shot the puck."
Once again however, the Jets pulled it back to a one-goal game on a power play marker of their own through Kyle Connor at 16:12 as Ottawa led 3-2 after 40.
Morrissey would tie the game with just 1:17 left in regulation before Nikolaj Ehlers won it in overtime at 2:20 as he scored his first of the year on a partial breakaway after Morrissey's feed.
"We were racing around trying to score rather than defending," Sens head coach D.J. Smith said. "That's a learning lesson for tonight. We lose a point and give a valuable point to them. You've got to close out games like that."
Murray made 24 saves while Winnipeg's Brossoit turned aside 38 shots. After having a faceoff percentage of 41.2 per cent through the first two games, the Senators won 54 per cent of the draws tonight.
The Sens and Jets do battle again Thursday at Canadian Tire Centre at 7 p.m.
