After an eight-day gap between games, the Ottawa Senators returned to the ice Monday night against the Colorado Avalanche.
The Sens were beaten 7-5 but Zach Sanford had a hat-trick while the team's power play scored twice, as Three Thoughts details.
Sanford scores three
Zach Sanford's first multi-point game as a Senator was one to remember as he scored three times Monday.
The 27-year-old scored on all three shots he took, once in each period, as he took his season tally to five goals.
"He's getting around the net, he's shooting pucks," Sens head coach D.J. Smith said. "He's looking dangerous and was one of our best players. He's responsible, knows how to play the game and … there's a skillset to being one of those guys."
It was the second career hat-trick of Sanford's career; he bagged four goals with the St. Louis Blues on Feb. 13, 2020.
He scored a career high 16 goals in 2019-20 and is already halfway to his total from a year ago. He has five goals in his last five games and at his current pace, would break the 20-goal threshold this season.
Sens return to action
After the team encountered a Covid-19 outbreak, the Sens returned to action Monday in tricky conditions.
Having not played since Nov. 14, and having only practiced twice, the team had to play in the Mile High city in Denver against a potent offensive opponent.
"Coming off of a week off from games and coming here and playing a team like that, [that's] fast and physical, but for the most part the team did a good job," Sanford said. "We had our legs, we had that intensity and kept coming back, tying it up and staying in the game but we have to mature a little bit and learn how to close those games out."
On three separate occasions the Sens scored the tying goal and in the third period, twice had the lead but couldn't hold on, eventually succumbing 7-5.
The Sens also lost Josh Brown to an upper-body injury in the first period resulting in even more ice team for the team's defencemen; Thomas Chabot led the team in time on ice with 31:54.
"We did a lot of great things [especially] playing with five D for the majority of the game coming off from the amount of time we had off," Smith said. "But we're going to hold ourselves to a higher standard and we have to find ways to win games."
Special teams make impact
The Senators' special teams had a significant impact Monday as the power play scored twice while the penalty kill went 3-for-4.
The Sens scored twice on the man advantage; Sanford tipped home Lassi Thomson's point shot in the first while Josh Norris buried a rebound early in the third.
"Anytime we move the puck really quick in the o-zone it opens up everything and you can see when we put the puck towards the net good things happen," Chabot said.
The Sens managed six shots on the man advantage and saw their season percentage rise to 20.4 per cent, tied for the 14th best in the NHL.
"Those guys were really good and had all kinds of chances," Smith said. "They looked dangerous all night."
On the other side, the Senators penalty kill managed to keep the Avs' dangerous power play unit at bay for the most part, thanks in large part to Filip Gustavsson who made nine stops while the hosts had the man advantage.
The Avalanche's only power play goal tied the game at 5-5 in the third period. Victor Mete and Artem Zub each played more than five minutes on the penalty kill, in large part due to Brown's first period injury.
https://ift.tt/30TRGek
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar