Drake Batherson set up a pair of Jakob Chychrun goals, including the winner, to help the Ottawa Senators beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-3.
For the second straight night, the Ottawa Senators rallied with four unanswered goals, this time defeating the Edmonton Oilers, 5-3. Drake Batherson led the way with a goal and two helpers while Jakob Chychrun scored twice. Joonas Korpisalo had one of his finest games of the season, making 33 saves.
Sometimes in the NHL, it’s as simple as that – riding a hot goalie while capitalizing on your opportunities. Korpisalo made one big save after another to keep the Oilers at bay, especially in the third period, as the Sens were outshot 36-16.
The game started with an onslaught of Oiler shots until finally, Adam Henrique made it 1-0 3:49 into the game.
Within two minutes, though, Jakob Chychrun tied it on a power play one-timer, set up by a perfect saucer pass from Drake Batherson.
Early in the second, the Oilers' lethal power play got busy, with Leon Draisaitl firing home a rocket of a snapshot from below the right circle to give the Oilers a 2-1 lead.
Zack Hyman entered the game with 49 goals, and it felt inevitable he was going to hit 50 against the Senators. Sure enough, Hyman was all alone at the side of the net and Connor McDavid found him for his milestone goal.
With the Oilers up 3-1, it felt like the game was probably out of reach for Ottawa.
Resiliency was the name of the game on Saturday in New Jersey and it was again on Sunday.
Two minutes after falling behind 3-1, Stutzle slid through the Oilers defence, used Batherson as a two-on-one decoy, and rifled a shot past Calvin Pickard to cut the Oilers lead to 3-2.
Later in the second period on a Senators power play, Batherson walked into the slot to rip a wrist-shot into the top corner to tie the game at 3.
And just like that, the Senators had scraped their way back into the game.
The third period was all Oilers as they dominated possession, but they were only able to muster five shots, making for a happy Korpisalo.
“We kept them outside and did our job,” said Korpisalo. “I think we played really smart in the third period and clogged the middle of the ice. I don't think they had any good chances there.”
With the score still tied, the Senators took advantage of a late power play with 3 minutes remaining in regulation. Batherson and Chychrun perfectly replicated their earlier goal together to give the Senators a 4-3 lead.
Parker Kelly added an empty netter to seal the 5-3 win, sending the home crowd (19,344) home happy.
Batherson said that Chychrun had been giving him grief for not finding him on the power play.
“He’s been giving it to me a little bit saying he's open back there," said Batherson. "Especially last night, he said he was. So right away I tried get the puck to him there. And he made two great shots there to score. It was nice to set him up.”
Head coach Jacques Martin felt the team had been on the wrong side of stellar goaltending this season, but this time it favoured them.
“Our goalie shut the door and made some good saves,” said Martin. “But we stayed with it, we were persistent and we didn't cheat the game, we battled hard.”
After a 2-0 weekend, the Senators are back in action on Wednesday in Buffalo against the Sabres.