This Hour Has 22 Minutes (Without A Shot), But Senators Still Rally To Beat Nashville In A Shootout

The Senators went more than 22 minutes without a shot on goal on Saturday night, but somehow managed to find a way to pull out a 3-2 shootout victory over the Nashville Predators at Canadian Tire Centre.

Drake Batherson played the hero in regulation, scoring with just 1:23 remaining with Linus Ullmark on the bench for an extra attacker. Tim Stützle, who had already scored the Sens'  first goal of the night, picked up an assist on the equalizer before adding a goal in the shootout.

He's off a fabulous start with 8 points in five games, good for ninth in the league, as of this writing.

Shane Pinto eventually delivered the shootout winner as the Senators improved to 4-1 on the young season.

It certainly wasn't a Rembrandt, especially through the first half of the game, when the Senators struggled to generate much of anything.

Nashville opened the scoring at 8:50 of the first period when Ross Colton beat Ullmark for his first goal of the season. It was a fortunate bounce off a skate that skipped right on to Colton's tape. Ullmark couldn't get over to his left in time to stop the wrist shot that went over his head.

The Predators doubled their lead at 13:10 when Jonathan Marchessault scored his first of the year on the power play. He beat Ullmark from a bad angle between the legs, but coverage-wise, he had way more room to operate than he should have.

The Sens managed just four shots on goal in the opening period and went through an incredible stretch of more than 22 minutes without a single shot.

But the Senators finally broke through at 9:29 of the second when Stützle scored his fourth goal of the season on the power play on a perfect feed from Dylan Cozens, cutting Nashville's lead to 2-1.

Despite their struggles, the Senators were still within striking distance in the third, but with things looking bleak late, they made their final push count.

With Ullmark on the bench for an extra attacker, Batherson scored his third goal of the season at 18:37 of the third period, tying the game at 2. At the right point, Stützle had no shooting lane, but he did have Shane Pinto in the slot.

He ripped a hard pass at him and Pinto redirected it. It would have gone wide, but Batherson was standing at the left post and it went in off his leg.

It was a fine rescue for a Sens team that had spent much of the night struggling to create anything.

Overtime gave the Sens a fantastic opportunity to complete the comeback on a four-on-three power play. But the best OT scoring opportunity came immediately after the Nashville penalty expired.

Roman Josi stepped out of the box and found himself on a breakaway, but Ullmark came up with a huge save, turning aside a wrist shot to keep the Sens alive.

That set the stage for the shootout, where Ryan O'Reilly scored for Nashville to give them a 1-0 lead.

Stützle answered for the Senators to tie it, Pinto gave them the lead, and Ullmark stopped Steven Stamkos on the Preds last gasp to secure the win.

Ullmark finished with 16 saves on 18 shots, while Nashville goaltender Matt Murray (not that Matt Murray) stopped 18 of the Sens' 20 shots.

Both teams finished 1-for-6 on the power play, a sluggish 16.7 percent success rate. 

This was the kind of close game in the past that the Senators would oftenlet get away from them. But they managed to turn what was shaping up to be a frustrating evening into their fourth victory in five games.

It definitely wasn't pretty, but as they say, there's no room for description on the scoresheet.

By Steve Warne
The Hockey News Ottawa