*Photo from TSN*
It might look different from the outside, but this was important for both teams. Claude Giroux had a goal and 3 assists, Thomas Chabot had a goal and two assists, and the Ottawa Senators defeated the Detroit Red Wings with a 6-2 victory on Monday night in Ottawa.
With the win, the Senators have now won two games in a row and are 6-3-1 in their last 10 games. Although they have to leapfrog 5 teams, including the Red Wings, to reach a wild card spot, the Senators are only 5 points behind that final wild card spot in a crowded Eastern Conference.
Senators head coach DJ Smith said that "It was one of our better performances, physically, in a while. We played a playoff-style game. Early on they had a good push. They started with the lead, but we stayed with it and put pucks in and used everyone, really. But ultimately, I've said it plenty, when your best players are your best players, you usually win."
Tyler Bertuzzi had the only goal of the first period, giving the Red Wings a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes. Jake Sanderson evened the score with a power play goal in the second period for the Senators, tying the game 1-1. David Perron then scored on the power play for Detroit to make it 2-1 before Drake Batherson tied the game 2-2 with another power play goal.
Not too long after Batherson scored, Giroux scored his 24th goal of the season 14:10 into the second, making it 3-2 in favor of Ottawa. Brady Tkachuk then scored to make it 4-2 Senators after two periods. Chabot then scored just 47 seconds into the 3rd period to pad the lead to 5-2. Tim Stutzle scored his 27th goal of the season to make it a 6-2 final.
Tkachuk said of the win that "Everyone stepped up tonight. I think everyone knows the importance of this final stretch, but our focus was just winning every shift and doing whatever it takes to win, and I think everybody did that tonight."
It was Cam Talbot in goal for the Senators, improving his record to 13-14-1 with a win on home ice. Talbot stopped 22 of the 24 shots on goal that the Red Wings had, which was good for a .917 save percentage.
Starting for Detroit opposite Talbot was Magnus Hellberg, who couldn't outplay his counterpart. Hellberg turned away 36 out of the 42 shots on goal the Senators had, recording a .857 save percentage. His record dropped to 4-5-1 in 10 games with the loss.
Detroit head coach Derek Lalonde said that there were "Too many penalties. That team will lose to nobody in the League if you give them six power plays. The power plays just demoralized us. It drains the top guys. Now we start making tired mistakes, we have no rhythm. And all of those were on the front end. We literally, with too many penalties, gave ourselves zero chance."
Up next, both teams face each other again on Tuesday night in Ottawa once again. Ville Husso will start for the Red Wings, while Mads Sogaard goes for the Senators.
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