*Photo from AP News*
Losing streak? Not anymore. Claude Giroux had two assists, Brady Tkachuk scored two goals, and the Ottawa Senators defeated the Pittsburgh Penguins with a 5-2 victory on Saturday in Pittsburgh.
Snapping a 3 game losing streak, the Senators rode to a win on the road to improve to 4-4-0 on the season. Tim Stutzle had two assists and Ridley Greig had a goal and an assist to join Tkachuk and Giroux as two point scorers in the win.
Tkachuk said of the losing streak that "I think it forced us to play simple. I think it forced us to focus on the defensive side of the puck and go from there. Each line has the mindset of wanting to be even or better. That's what we're going to have to carry moving forward. Take advantage of the opportunities that they give us."
Starting the scoring for the Senators was Greig. On the power play 4:24 into the game, Greig scored his second goal of the season to give them a 1-0 lead, assisted by Giroux and Jakob Chychrun. At the 14:14 mark of the first period, Tkachuk scored to double the lead to 2-0, with assists going to Giroux and Stutzle.
In the second period, the Senators continued to add on. Dominik Kubalik got it going, making it a 3-0 game on his first goal of the season, with Greig and Mathieu Joseph getting assists. At the 17:34 mark of the second, Sidney Crosby got the Penguins on the board, cutting the deficit to 3-1 with his 5th goal of the season.
Tkachuk got the Senators on the board in the 3rd period, making it 4-1 with his second goal of the game, assisted by Stutzle and Travis Hamonic. 31 seconds later, Drake Batherson scored for Ottawa, making it 5-1 on his first goal of the season. Jake Guentzel got one back for the Penguins to make it a 5-2 final.
Getting the start for the Senators was Joonas Korpisalo, improving to 2-3-0 as he beat the Penguins for just the second time in 8 starts against them. Korpisalo made 40 saves on 42 shots, good for a strong .952 save percentage on the game.
Korpisalo said after the game that "They came in hot, threw everything to the net in the first period. I think we did a great job blocking shots, clearing the rebounds. There were quite a few of them today. Battling today. That was the key word."
Starting in net for the Penguins was Tristan Jarry, who allowed 3 goals on 9 shots before being pulled in favor of Magnus Hellberg, taking the loss to drop to 2-4-0 on the season. Hellberg made 15 saves after Jarry departed, making his Penguins debut.
Penguins defenseman Marcus Pettersson said that "They're too good to give that team that many good looks. Well, not that many, but the looks they got were really good. Our energy was good from the start, but we were down 2-0. I think we got a little frustrated in our structure and kind of lost it and gave them good looks that they capitalized on."
The Penguins get back in action on Monday against the Anaheim Ducks, with the expected starter being Jarry. The Senators have a layoff until Thursday when they play the Los Angeles Kings, with Korpisalo the projected starter.
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