Post-game Recap: Senators take down the Blue Jackets

Ottawa doubled-up Columbus 6-3 for their fourth win in a row and 7th out of their last 10 home games.

The Senators were led by captain Brady Tkachuk who recorded his second career hat trick and Anton Forsberg won in his first game back from injury.

The first period opened with Columbus controlling the play, but without many quality opportunities.

However, the play in the Senators end eventually caught up to them when just seven minutes into the period Dmitri Voronkov blindly threw the puck in front of the Ottawa net. The puck bounced off Jacob Bernard-Docker and behind Anton Forsberg for the first goal of the game.

Off the very next face-off Shane Pinto managed to sneak past the Columbus defenders and put the puck just over the net for Ottawa’s first scoring chance of the evening.

The Senators continued to build on that leading to the first power play of the game when consistent pressure from Parker Kelly and Mark Kastelic became too much for the Blue Jackets to handle.

Once the Senators were able to set-up with the power play at the halfway mark of the period. Vladimir Tarasenko took a feed from Thomas Chabot and walked in on Daniil Tarasov before ringing a shot off the right post and forcing the Columbus goaltender to make a sprawling glove save to keep the Blue Jacket lead.

Claude Giroux won the next face-off and kicked off a tic-tac-toe passing play which finished with a Brady Tkachuk goal.

The goal light barely had a time to shut off before Tkachuk picked up and errant pass in his own end and raced down the ice with Drake Batherson in a two-on-one. Brady elected to shoot and after the initial shot was stopped he batted his own rebound through the goaltender’s five-hole for the his second goal in 48 seconds.

As the period continued Jakob Chychrun got into a shoving match with Mathieu Olivier, but the Senators received the extra penalty putting his team down a skater.

On the ensuing power play, Claude Giroux took a Parker Kelly pass down the left side of the ice and roofed the short-handed goal to give Ottawa a 3-1 lead.

On the same penalty kill the Senators were threatening again when Mathieu Joseph got behind the Erik Gudbranson before being stopped by Tarasov. Joseph collected his own rebound and banked it in off the Columbus goalie, but upon review the officials determined it to be goaltender interference.

With the Senators leading by two goals at the start of the period, the second started out with both with teams feeling out once again.

Just three minutes into the frame a point shot on the Senators net let to a scramble in front of Forsberg who was able to stop all three consecutive shots.

On the ensuing play the Senators made their way up the ice creating a chance of their own. With 14:23 left to play Pinto circled along the left wing before finding Tarasenko at the Columbus blueline whose slapshot was tipped by Grieg for his second goal in the past two games.

It took the Blue Jackets less than five minutes to answer back when Boone Jenner snapped a quick shot from the top of the left face-off circle past Forsberg.

Just two minutes after that Jack Roslovic snuck a shot through a crowd past a screened Forsberg to make the score 4-3.

The Columbus pressure didn’t stop at this point and Justin Danforth won a puck-battle before forcing a splits save from Forsberg and the next shift Sean Kuraly rang a shot off the cross-bar.

Ottawa answered back when Matthew Joseph and Tim Stützle combined for a two on one which led to another Columbus penalty.

On the ensuing power play Claude Giroux wired a shot from the point catching Ivan Provorov in the leg. With the Columbus defenseman incapacitated Giroux recouped his own rebound and fed the captain a perfect pass to help Tkachuk cap-off the hat trick.

The final period started with more than a minute left on a Senators penalty, but Columbus couldn’t get settled in the Senators zone.

Later, a Shane Pinto penalty was called and with the Columbus goalie on the bench for an extra skater Anton Forsberg made a sprawling pad save to shut the door and lead Ottawa to a perfect 4 for 4 on the penalty kill.

With twelve minutes remaining Stützle took a Joseph pass for a breakaway, but couldn’t put it away before Gudbranson pulled him down for a penalty, Although the Senators couldn’t connect on the power play they were able to rest their short-handed defense corps.

Columbus was able to generate scoring chances late including a shot off the crossbar and an odd play with just under two minutes remaining. The play developed as the Blue Jackets cycled the puck and was able to generate a point shot. The puck bounced in front of the net, then bounced off the glass and landed in front of the Senators net. When the Columbus forwards collapsed on the puck Forsberg was able to locate the puck among the maze of feet and smother it for the whistle and end the threat.

In the closing seconds Forsberg made another save and Erik Brannstrom picked up the puck and quickly sent it the length of the ice into the empty net to seal the victory.

Three Thoughts:

1. Claude Giroux led all forwards with 22:26 during which he scored a goal and added two assists.

2. Erik Brannstrom’s scored his third goal of the season and had a season-high on ice time with 22:33.

3. The Senators are now 6-1-1 when Shane Pinto is in the lineup this season.