Home For A Rest: Nick Cousins Plays Late Hero As Senators Down Utah 4-2

If you're supposed to struggle in your first game back from a long road trip, the Senators didn't get that memo on Saturday night.

After five on the road, they defeated the Utah Mammoth 4-2 at Canadian Tire Centre. Nick Cousins goal with 2:18 left in regulation stood up as the game winner, while Samuel Ersson continued to answer his critics,.

Ersson improved to 3-0 in his last three games, and giving up just four goals in the process. He made 30 saves as the Sens were outshot 32-21.

Michael Amadio and Shane Pinto each had a goal and an assist for the Senators, who also got a goal from Fabian Zetterlund.

Zetterlund opened the scoring on the power play when Stephen Halliday fed him at the right point and he ripped a wrist shot home. It was just Zetterlund's second goal in 18 games this season. Philip Tomasino picked up an assist on the goal, giving him four points in four games since his recall from the Belleville Senators.

The lead lasted just four and a half minutes.

Tim Stützle carried the puck across the Utah blue line and tried to cut back, but lost his footing and went down. The Mammoth quickly turned the play the other way, sending captain Clayton Keller in alone on Samuel Ersson. The Senators goaltender made the initial save, but Keller tucked home his own rebound to tie the game at 1-1.

Neither team found the back of the net in the second period, sending the teams into the third still deadlocked at one.

For the second straight game, Michael Amadio gave the Senators a 2-1 lead with a third-period goal. This was came just over 6 minutes into the third.

With Utah defenceman MacKenzie Weegar pinching in the Senators' zone, Tyler Kleven pushed the puck past Weegar and Nick Schmaltz to lead a three-on-one rush with Claude Giroux and Amadio.

Kleven moved the puck over to Giroux on the right wing, who appeared to be trying to return the pass to Kleven. But with two defenders converging on Kleven, the puck slipped under his stick and went straight to Amadio, who was perfectly positioned on the left side to snap home the go-ahead goal.

As was the case in the first period, however, the Senators' lead only lasted a few minutes.

Following an offensive-zone faceoff win by the Mammoth, Clayton Keller took possession at the right point and sent a wrist shot toward the net. Barrett Hayton got his stick on it, tipping the puck past Ersson to tie the game at 2.

Then with just over two minutes to play, Pinto won an offensive zone draw back to Chabot, who saw Cousins at the far post. The veteran forward redirected the slap pass into the vacant cage.

With the Mammoth pushing to tie, Pinto then put it away with an empty netter as the Senators improved their record to 11-6-1..

The Senators are back at it on Tuesday night, hosting the Washington Capitals in what's scheduled to be Alex Ovechkin's second-last appearance in Ottawa.

By Steve Warne
The Hockey News Ottawa