*Photo from The Athletic*
The Ottawa Senators thought they deserved to win the game. But, ultimately, sometimes the team that wins might not have deserved it the most, sometimes it can be some streaks of luck that give you the win on certain nights. Mikko Koskinen stopped 40 shots, Evan Bouchard scored his first goal of the season, and the Edmonton Oilers topped the Senators by a 3-2 score Tuesday night to get the win.
Conor Brown started the scoring for the Senators just 26 seconds into the game, redirecting a shot past Koskinen to make it 1-0 very early on. At 4:11 of the first, Darnell Nurse scored for the Oilers to tie things at one. At the 17:19 mark, Bouchard scored on a perfect angle wrister to give Edmonton a 2-1 lead. In the second, Tyson Barrie provided a goal for the Oilers to increase the lead to 3-1. In the 3rd, Evgenii Dadonov scored for Ottawa to cut the lead to 3-2, but they couldn't muster anything after that.
Brown said of the loss that "I thought we were the better team and deserved to come away with that win. But, we've got to find ways. That's what good teams do is they find a way, whether they play their best or not, they find a way to win and that's what we're learning to do here."
Marcus Hogberg took the loss for the Senators, stopping 10 of 13 shots that came his way. Midway into the 3rd period, Senators coach DJ Smith pulled Hogberg and put in Matt Murray, who stopped all 9 shots that he faced. Ottawa fell to 2-11-1 on the season, good for last place in the NHL's North Division.
Bouchard talked about his goal after the game for the Oilers, saying that "I think that's one of the keys to getting the puck through is changing the angle. Blockers are so good at this level so you really have to work at changing it up and making it tough on the forwards coming out at you."
All 3 Oilers goals came from defensemen, as Nurse scored his 5th of the season, Bouchard got his first, and Barrie scored his second. Koskinen stopped 40 out of 42 shots that came his way in the game, as Edmonton improved to 8-7-0, good for 3rd place in the North Division standings.
Barrie talked about the overall play of the defense after the game, saying that "We've been doing a good job at getting in the play and supporting our forwards and getting some shots through from the point. We're scoring in all sorts of different ways right now."
The Oilers head to Montreal on Thursday to face the Canadiens, where Koskinen is expected to draw the start again for Edmonton. The Senators head to Winnipeg to face the Jets, where Murray is expected to start for Ottawa.
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