JETS 5, SENATORS 1
WINNIPEG — Twas the nightmare before Christmas.
The Ottawa Senators took one on the chin as they closed out this three-game road trip with only one win after dropping an ugly 5-1 decision to the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night at Canada Life Centre.
After climbing up the ladder to reach the .500 mark on the weekend, the Senators took another step in the wrong direction with their second straight loss. Now, with back-to-back games before the Christmas break the Senators need to find a way to get back on track.
Only winger Drake Batherson was able to score for the Senators while goaltender Cam Talbot struggled as well.
“It wasn’t good enough. We just weren’t ready to start and they made us pay early,” said Talbot, who allowed five goals on 24 shots. “They play so well defensively, they clog up the middle of the ice and when you give them opportunities they put it in the back of the net which they showed tonight.
“We started this trip right, we got the two points off the bat and after that you want to come home with four, if not six.”
Coming off a 4-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Sunday, the Senators were hoping to close out this trip with four of a possible six points. The club went into this game eight points behind the New York Islanders for the final wild-card spot in the East.
It was a loss to the Wild in October that started a seven-game losing skid for the Senators and they need to find a way to halt this trend before the NHL’s three-day Christmas break begins Saturday. This one hurt them.
The club was looking for a strong bounce-back after a difficult game against the Wild.
“It just wasn’t good enough right from the get-go,” said coach D.J. Smith. “We just weren’t sharp, we had no execution on breakouts and we made turnovers. We just weren’t hard enough, we’d lose battles and it’s in the back of the net.
“Then you get too far behind the game’s over.”
The Jets were without top goaltender Connor Hellebuyck. He wasn’t able to suit up because of a non-COVID related illness which meant backup David Rittich started this one. He came into the game with a 5-3-0 lifetime record with a .905 save-percentage and 2.79 GAA.
The Jets are also without the likes of Blake Wheeler and Nikolaj Ehlers.
There were a lot of times in this one the Senators did play their game, but they just simply didn’t get the saves when they needed them. It felt like every mistake they made ended up in their net and they needed Talbot to make a key stop or two.
The decision to go with Talbot made sense. He made 29 stops in the club’s 6-3 win Saturday to start this trip, but he just didn’t have it in this one. One of the biggest factors in the turnaround has been goaltending and the club needed it in this one.
Kyle Connor, left alone in front, fired it by Talbot at 14:23 of the second to give the Jets a 5-1 lead and that came on Winnipeg’s 17th shot of the game. From there, the two teams just played out the clock and the final buzzer couldn’t have sounded soon enough.
Parker Kelly hit the post midway through the second behind Rittich but the middle frame wasn’t a whole to write home about. The Senators were down by three goal so quickly in the second it didn’t look like they were going to find their way back into this.
“They had some good goaltending. It’s on us, we have to turn the page and be ready for those last two games,” said Kelly. “We’ve got to regroup and win those last two games.”
Only 1:02 into the second, Kyle Connor fired it into a wide open net to give the Jets a 4-1 lead as the Senators started the period exactly the way the first one ended. That was the fourth goal the club allowed in only 23 minutes and that just can’t happen.
The Senators completely outplayed the Jets in the first, but were down 3-1 despite outshooting them 17-10. Winnipeg’s Sam Gagner scored with only 12.8 seconds left on a delayed penalty restored a two-goal lead for the Jets with Rittich off for the extra attacker.
That appeared to change direction on Talbot but late goals like are difficult to stomach and every mistake Ottawa made in the first ended up in the net.
Trailing 2-0, Batherson scored his 11th of the season at 8:28 on the power play to pull the club within a goal. He one-timed a blast upstairs on Rittich. That came only 90 seconds after Josh Morrissey fired a blast upstairs by Talbot to open the two-goal lead.
“We just didn’t play our game tonight. That’s the result when we don’t play to our system and our game plan that’s the result we’re going to get,” said captain Brady Tkachuk.
This game wasn’t even two minutes old and the Senators down by a goal.
The fans were settling into their seats when the club lost a puck battle behind its own net and Kevin Stenlund took a pass out front to beat Talbot on only the second shot he faced. This was a lapse defensively and the Senators paid the price.
The Senators will host the Washington Capitals Thursday at 7 p.m.
bgarrioch@postmedia.com
Twitter.com/sungarrioch
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