Devils’ comeback falls short in shootout loss to Senators

Drake Batherson scored his second goal of the game with 1:43 remaining in overtime, and the Ottawa Senators earned their first four-game winning streak in more than five years, with a 5-4 victory over the visiting New Jersey Devils on Tuesday night.

Tim Stutzle had two goals with two assists and Brady Tkachuk topped the 100-career assist mark with three for the Senators (32-41-7, 71 points), who have won four straight for the first time since a six-game run from March 2-11, 2017. After blowing a two-goal, third-period edge, the Senators prevailed on Batherson’s nifty toe-drag move to beat New Jersey netminder MacKenzie Blackwood (29 saves), who returned from a heel injury for his first action since Jan. 19.

Nolan Foote scored twice and Pavel Zacha notched a goal with an assist for the Devils (27-44-9, 63 points), who are mired in an 0-2-2 rut. The Devils were also swept in the three-game season series with the Senators.

Ottawa went ahead 4-2 on Stutzle’s short-handed breakaway with 13:26 left in regulation. But 55 seconds later, Jesper Bratt dropped the puck for Zacha to one-time by Senators netminder Anton Forsberg (37 saves). Then with 9:45 left in the third, Yegor Sharangovich slid the puck past Forsberg to tie the game.

Though the teams combined for 24 first-period shots on goal, the first score didn’t come until the final 16.9 seconds of the opening frame. On the power play, Tkachuk placed the puck for Thomas Chabot to push home.

Then 11 seconds into the second period, Tkachuk won a board battle, and found Batherson to beat Blackwood for a 2-0 Ottawa advantage. New Jersey answered at 8:52 into the second, when Fabian Zetterlund found a trailing Foote for a sharp wrister that made it a 2-1 contest.

The Senators, however, regained their two-goal lead with 3:19 left in the middle period. Again on the power play, Stutzle put home a long rebound of Tkachuk’s shot.

But again, New Jersey made things interesting when Foote got enough of his stick on the puck to flick it by Forsberg with 5.2 remaining in the second.

Source: NYPOST