Recap: Ottawa Senators defeat Vegas Golden Knights

The Senators tried to set the tone early in this content playing a physical game exemplified by Drake Batherson laying a big hit on Nicolas Hague early in the first period.However, Vegas applied the pressure consistantly in the early going with a handful of great looks in the first few minutes of the period, before Jonathan Marchessault tallied his 30th goal of the season at the 5:41 mark of the first to give Vegas the early lead.

The Senators had some good looks of their own early most notably when Vladimir Tarasenko established his presence in front of the Vegas net before receiving a timely pass from BradyTkachuk for a chance. However, Logan Thompson came up with big save to maintain the Golden Knights lead.

With just under nine minutes to play, things turned physical when Brendan Brisson tripped Tim Stützle near centre ice resulting in Stützle taking a hard spill into the boards. Mathieu Joseph immediately stuck up for his teammate getting in the face of Brisson resulting in a roughing penalty to make it four-on-four. 

Roughly a minute into the four-on-four play, Michael Amadio was called for hooking Jake Sanderson giving the Senators get their first power play of the game with 7:10 left of the first.

While the Senators came up empty on the power play they amassed a few quality looks on net. In the waning minutes of the first period, Tim Stützle put on a flurry of moves after carrying the puck into the offensive zone before finding a wide open Claude Giroux infront of the net, but Logan Thompson came up with yet another big save.

The Senators would get one final chance to draw even when Zach Whitecloud was called for cross-checking Erik Brannstrom, with only 2:18 left in the first. Though they controlled the play for the final few minutes of play the Sens came up dry again as the Golden Knights carried their 1-0 lead into the first intermission.

Vegas stayed in control for the first five minutes of the second with Parker Kelly getting called for holding Byron Froese with roughly 17 minutes to play. Chandler Sephenson was able to double the lead for the Golden Knights just 12 seconds into the power play.

Things looked like they could have gotten out of hand when Nicolas Hague got in front of the Sens net and almost made it 3-0 before Forsberg made a big save to stave them off. 

Not long thereafter the Senators were able to get on the board with Thomas Chabot cutting across the ice with a series of moves before letting it rip from the high slot to beat Thompson and draw the game back within one goal with 11 minutes left in the second.

Over the course of the next seven minutes of action the Goldne Knights had several golden chances to regain their lead. First thwy had a two-on-one opportunity near the midway point of the period that Forsberg stopped short. Later on they had a breakaway chance following a Parker Kelly giveaway which again Forsberg came up big with a glove save to keep it a one-goal game. 

With just 3:22 to play in the second, Brady Tkachuk was called for interference  though the Senators caught a break with Paul Cotter called for hooking Erik Brännström with 37 seconds left in Tkachuk's penalty to make it four-on-four again. Almost immediately after Tkachuk was out of the penalty box the Senators were able to capitalize on the man advantage with Brady finding a wide open Drake Batherson in front of the net who slotted it past Thompson to tie the game heading into the final frame.

A few strong chances at the start of the third from Tarasenko, Norris and Stützle led to the Senators first lead when Josh Norris was able to tip in a blast from Thomas Chabot with 14:12 remaining in regulation to.

the Senators controlled the pace of play for most of the third period earning plenty of great scoring chances to double their lead. However, with 1:39 left to play Vegas pulled their goaltender to gain the extra attacker and with just 1:15 left to play they tied the game up and sent it to overtime. 

The overtime period felt like it was all Senators, outshooting the Golden Knights 6-2 though it was all for naught as the two ides remained scoreless aftert the extra five minutes. That meant it would take a shootout to wrap this one up.

In the three rounds of the shootout only Tim Stützle was able to get the better of the Logan Thompson while Anton Forsberg stopped all three shots he faced to earn the Senators the victory.

Hear from interim head coach Jacques Martin, goaltender Anton Forsberg, defenceman Thomas Chabot, and forwards Josh Norris and Drake Batherson postgame:

Watch the full recap of the Senators victory over the Golden Knights below: