The Vancouver Canucks will look for a bounce-back win while keeping one of the league’s worst teams reeling when they visit the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.
The Canucks are coming off a 4-3 shootout loss to the visiting Nashville Predators on Saturday, while Ottawa dropped its fifth straight game with a 2-1 loss to the visiting Philadelphia Flyers that same day.
Vancouver scored three first-period goals and led 3-1 entering the final period before Nashville scored twice in less than two minutes early in the final frame. After neither team scored in overtime, Matt Duchene scored the only goal in the shootout to send Vancouver to its second loss in its past three games.
Center J.T. Miller posted a goal and an assist for the Canucks, who also received goals from wingers Ilya Mikheyev and Andrei Kuzmenko, while defenseman Quinn Hughes added two assists. Goalie Thatcher Demko (1-6-2, 3.91 goals-against average) had 27 saves.
“We knew that just because the first period was in our favor pretty much the whole time, that the game wasn’t over,” Miller said. “There were a couple of mistakes made.
“We played a good 40 minutes, set ourselves up. And obviously, at this point in time we’re tired of getting teams coming back on us.”
Canucks center Elias Pettersson, with five goals and a team-high 10 assists, has a team-leading 15 points, one ahead of Bo Horvat, who has a team-high 10 goals with four assists. Miller and Kuzmenko have seven goals apiece.
Ottawa, which is last place in the Atlantic Division, took a 1-0 lead in the first period against the Flyers on center Claude Giroux’s 300th career goal, which also gave him a tally against every team in the league.
After Kevin Hayes’ goal at the 5:17 mark in the first period tied the game, Zack MacEwen’s goal with 1:36 left in the second period proved to be the difference.
“We’re in a little hole,” said Giroux, who played for the Flyers from 2007-2022. “But I’ve been in bigger holes before and come out of it, so right now I’m very frustrated, but not worried about it.”
Cam Talbot, who the Senators acquired in a trade with the Minnesota Wild this past July, made 26 saves in his Ottawa debut after missing the first three weeks with a rib injury.
The Senators, who outshot the Flyers 34-28, went 0-for-5 on the power play, while the Flyers went 1-for-3, with Hayes’ first-period equalizer coming on the man advantage.
“It comes down to special teams” Senators coach D.J. Smith said. “They score on their power play and we go 0-for-5. The game’s on the line and you get a power play in the third period. We’ve got to find a way to put it in.”
Winger Brady Tkachuk has a team-high 10 assists and is tied for the team lead with six goals, as his 16 points are at least five more than any other Senator.
Giroux and center Shane Pinto also have six goals, while winger Drake Batherson is second on the team with 11 points (three goals and eight assists).
–Field Level Media