Down 2-0, the Sens scored twice in the third to force OT, but Jake Walman won it for the Oilers.
Jake Walman made a splash in his season debut, blasting home a power play goal in overtime to give the Edmonton Oilers a 3-2 win over the Ottawa Senators. The Sens have now lost five of their last six games but after falling behind 2-0 after 40 minutes, they did a good job to salvage an overtime point.
The Senators had almost killed off an OT penalty, but the Oilers quickly won the draw back to Walman, who one timed a hard, knuckling shot from long distance that caused Linus Ullmark to duck as he never seemed to get a bead on it.
The Sens were outshot 25-21, and their penalty kill gave up two goals on three tries, both off Tim Stutzle slashing penalties. The unit came into Tuesday night's game with the second worst PK percentage in the NHL, so it wasn’t much of a surprise to see Connor McDavid take advantage early.
With under four minutes left in the first period, McDavid was left all alone to the right of Ullmark. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins circled behind the net and fed him a perfect pass, which McDavid one-timed past Ullmark to open the scoring.
McDavid was involved in the second goal as well, though he didn’t get a point. As Ridly Greig tried to carry the puck out of his own end, McDavid tripped him up, causing a turnover. The Senators bench wanted a penalty, but Leon Draisaitl scooped up the puck and dished it Isaac Howard, who buried it for his first NHL goal. That made it 2–0, less than a minute into the second period.
They held that lead into the second intermission, and it looked like the Senators were snake-bitten. But the Sens carried a power play into the third and finally broke through. In a scrum along the boards, Drake Batherson dug the puck out and left it for Dylan Cozens, who beat Stuart Skinner with a wrist shot to cut the lead to one.
Just 90 seconds later, Thomas Chabot’s shot from the point made its way through traffic and past Skinner, tying the game 2–2.
From there, Ullmark was excellent, making several key stops in the third, including a highlight-reel glove save on a one-timer from Evan Bouchard.
It was clear in the late stages of regulation that the two slumping clubs were content to get the game to overtime to assure themselves a point, especially the Sens who had frittered away a point on Saturday.
"I liked our game a lot tonight," head coach Travis Green told the media. "I didn't like that we didn't win, but that was a big step in the right direction.
"You saw a team that was on the same page tonight for the most part."
The Senators are now 2-4-1 on the young season and will close out their homestand against the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night.
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