*Photo from the Edmonton Journal*
When the Edmonton Oilers and Ottawa Senators have played this season, Ottawa really hasn't gotten anything going, or won a game. That continued Thursday night. Devin Shore scored, Kailer Yamamoto added a goal, and the Oilers topped the Senators with a 3-1 win to sweep the season series against the Senators, going a perfect 9-0-0 this season against Ottawa.
Yamamoto started the scoring in the first period, with a power play goal to make it 1-0 Oilers. Ottawa then tied it with 1:55 remaining in the period on Connor Brown's 12th goal of the season. It remained 1-1 until 12:58 into the 3rd, when Shore scored his 4th goal of the season to give Edmonton a 2-1 lead. With 10 seconds left, Jesse Puljujarvi scored on an empty net to seal the win.
Oilers goalie Mike Smith said of the series sweep of the Senators that "It's pretty impressive when you think about it. You don't really get that opportunity too often, and especially as well as the team on the other side has played, and how they've gotten better, it seems, every time we've played them. We just kind of found ways to get wins. It just shows the resilience of our group."
Smith got the start in net for Edmonton, putting up a great outing, saving 39 shots out of 40, the Brown goal in the first being his only mistake. Smith improved his record to a strong 14-3-2 this season, while Edmonton sits in second place in the North Division, with a 25-14-2 record on the season.
Oilers coach Dave Tippett said of the win that "I give Ottawa a ton of credit. They played very well, they played hard. Smith made some real big saves for us to kind of keep us in the game, and we got a little scoring. Shore gets a big goal at the right time and we were able to push the game along. But it was a hard-fought battle."
On the other side, 5th string goalie Anton Forsberg took the loss for Ottawa, saving 20 of 22 shots during the game. In 4 games with Ottawa after being claimed off waivers, Forsberg has a 1-2-1 record, while Ottawa's bad season continues, with a 13-24-4 record, 7th place in the North Division.
Senators coach DJ Smith was happy with the team's effort, despite the loss, saying that "You just keep playing like that and you're going to win more times than not. We've won more games this year when we didn't play anywhere close to as well as we played tonight. That's just sometimes the way it goes."
The Senators head to Toronto to face the Maple Leafs on Saturday, where Matt Murray is expected to start. The Oilers face the Calgary Flames on Saturday, with Smith starting.
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