Recap: Senators come up short to the Devils

The Senators hosted their annual Fan Appreciation Night against the New Jersey Devils on April 6th and after a tough outing against the Florida Panthers Thursday evening, the team looked to come back stronger in front of a sold out crowd.

The Senators battled until the very last second but come up short 4-3.

"I thought the team in the third period played really well. I thought that we were smarter as far as getting pucks behind their D, and pressure, and forechecking, and getting some shots" said interim head coach Jacques Martin.

The game marked a NHL return for Bokondji Imama who quickly made his mark in his first game with the Senators after fighting Kurtis MacDermid halfway through the first period sparking a large roar from the crowd.

The Devils came out to a roaring start themselves however and after giving up 3 goals, a goalie change was made and Korpisalo stepped in nets to finish off the rest of the first period.

"I don't think it was necessarily that bad overall. At the end of the day, they have a lot of skill and they burried on their chances" said Thomas Chabot.

At the start of the second period Jake Sanderson was quick to respond to the deficit, scoring his first goal since March 12 and getting the Senators on the board early in the period. The Devils scored midway through the period to regain the 3-goal advantage which they would take into the third period.

In the third period, Claude Giroux cut the devils lead in half on the Senators second power play of the night at the 3:37 mark.

With 15:41 to go and only 2 goals behind, Thomas Chabot got called for hooking Jack Hughes on a breakaway which led to Hughes being granted a dramatic penalty shot. On the shot, Hughes fumbled the possesion resulting in an unsuccesful attempt and leaving the game 4-2 for the Devils.

The team fought back hard in the third and Brady Tkachuk wasn’t going down without a fight, hitting everyone that crossed his path. Off the bench and into the net, Tkachuk found the puck while streaking fresh off a line change and scored an unassisted goal to bring the Senators within one goal with only 5:43 remaining in the third period.

"That's how we need to play, third period I felt like that was probably our best period all year." said Captain Brady Tkachuk. "We just did the little things right, put it behind them, got physical, and a lot of guys stepped up."

In the dying moments of the third, the players were firing on all cylinders but ultimately came up short. Drake Batherson wired the puck just wide of the net and Shane Pinto came within inches of making it a tie game but hit the post with under 8 seconds remaining.

After falling to the Devils, the Senators were officially eliminated from the Stanley Cup Playoff race. They will travel to Washington tonight ahead of tomorrow’s game at 6PM.