*Photo from Reuters*
Who doesn't love some last second drama? Tim Stutzle had 4 assists, Vladimir Tarasenko scored a last second goal, and the Ottawa Senators defeated the San Jose Sharks with a 5-4 victory on Saturday in Ottawa.
The Senators won their first game of 2024 and snapped a 5 game losing streak in the process. Tarasenko, Brady Tkachuk, and Drake Batherson all had a goal and an assist in the win, while Artem Zub chipped in 3 assists to go with Stutzle's 4 assist game.
Senators interim head coach Jacques Martin said of the win that "I thought we had a great effort, we played very well. We’ve just got to keep learning about managing the puck better, recognizing situations. Maybe their first goal tonight, we gave it to them. Those are things that we have to clean up, but it’s nice to see us getting some goals. It was well deserved. We had lots of shots, and I thought we were better as far as going to the net and carrying the play."
Claude Giroux kicked off the scoring in this one, giving the Senators a 1-0 lead 4:12 into the game on his 13th goal of the season. Thomas Chabot doubled the lead to 2-0 when he scored his first goal of the season with Stutzle and Tarasenko assisting. Anthony Duclair got the Sharks on the board to make it a 2-1 game after one period.
Marc-Edouard Vlasic scored his first goal of the season in the second period to tie the game 2-2 before Kevin Labanc scored to make it a 3-2 Sharks lead on his second goal of the season. Stutzle and Batherson assisted on Tkachuk's goal to tie the game 3-3 before Batherson scored with help from Zub and Stutzle to make it 4-3 Senators.
Late in the 3rd period, Filip Zadina found the back of the net for the Sharks, tying the game 4-4 with 3:04 left on the clock, scoring his 5th goal of the season with Mario Ferraro and Tomas Hertl assisting. With 5 seconds left in regulation, Tarasenko was able to score his 10th goal of the season to give Ottawa the dramatic win.
Tarasenko said after the game that "I stayed net-front almost the whole time, just hoping somebody would create a shot. It’s a good play by the guys, a good bounce. You know, there’s a structure in the zone too. If we stay consistent on it and believe it’s going to work, it’s going to work eventually."
Getting the start for the Senators in net was Joonas Korpisalo, who was able to get the win and improve to 8-15-0. Korpisalo stopped 14 of the 18 shots the Sharks tested him with, giving him a .778 save percentage.
On the other end of the ice in net for the Sharks was MacKenzie Blackwood, who took another loss to make his record 5-17-2. Blackwood turned aside 36 out of the 41 shots on goal the Senators had, recording a .878 save percentage.
Zadina said of the last second loss that "It's obviously a tough ending for us. We had been battling the whole game and played hard. It hurts, but you have to play the full 60 minutes, not play 59 whatever, just have to play for 60 minutes."
The Sharks try to break past the 10 win mark on Monday afternoon against the Buffalo Sabres, with Kaapo Kahkonen likely to start. Korpisalo is the expected starter for the Senators when they face the Colorado Avalanche at home on Tuesday.
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