The Ottawa Senators will look to continue their playoff push when they visit the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night.
The Senators, who have won six of their past seven games, trail the Pittsburgh Penguins by four points for the second Eastern Conference wild card. Both teams have played 64 games.
Ottawa has split the first two games of a five-game road trip, taking a 5-0 loss against the Chicago Blackhawks on Monday before bouncing back for a stirring 5-4 win against the Seattle Kraken on Thursday.
The Senators blew a 3-0 lead at Seattle and trailed 4-3 early in the third period before scoring twice for the win.
Alex DeBrincat netted the game-winner with 2:23 remaining. Jakob Chychrun and Claude Giroux each had a goal and an assist for Ottawa, and Mads Sogaard made 29 saves.
“That’s what it’s all about,” said Ottawa forward Shane Pinto, who added had a goal. “We had a tough game in Chicago. The maturity we showed and the way we responded will go a long way for us.”
Even with the shutout loss factored in, Ottawa is scoring goals in bunches, averaging 4.6 goals per game over its past seven.
Giroux notched his 20th multi-point game of the season. Patrick Brown, acquired in a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers, scored a goal in his Senators debut.
“That was awesome. But most importantly, we got the win,” Brown said. “That’s a tough game to play. Sometimes you get up early, and then all of a sudden, you’re down in the third (period). But we stuck together, and we kept playing the right way. We didn’t try and cheat for offense.”
Vancouver is not in the wild-card picture, but the Canucks bring a three-game winning streak into the fifth contest of a six-game homestand.
The Canucks are coming off a 3-2 overtime win against the Anaheim Ducks on Wednesday. J.T. Miller scored two goals, including the game-winner on the rush just 20 seconds into overtime.
Elias Pettersson had two assists and Thatcher Demko made 20 saves for the Canucks, who are 6-2-1 in their past nine games and have won three straight for just the fourth time this season. They have yet to win four in a row.
“It means a lot. We really struggled with that third game this year,” Miller said postgame. “But win or lose tonight, we played the right way the majority of the game and if we can hang our hat on doing that most nights, we’re going to come out with success.”
Miller has three goals and an assist in his past three games.
Vancouver rookie forward Andrei Kuzmenko scored his 30th goal of the season, and he has 57 points in 63 games. He became the first Russian forward to score 30 goals with the Canucks in his first season since Pavel Bure in the 1991-92 season.
Miller’s opening goal came short-handed. The Canucks have eight short-handed goals since Rick Tocchet took over as head coach on Jan. 22.
“I thought we had a lot of possession time, I like most of the game,” Tocchet said of the win. “I think the guys worked hard.”
Vancouver took the first meeting of the season between the teams 6-4 on Nov. 8 in Ottawa behind two goals from Bo Horvat.
–Field Level Media
