Senators Win Home Opener, But Another Key Injury Takes Some Of The Shine Off

The Senators improved to 3-1-0 on the young season thanks to a 2-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers in their home opener on Thursday night. Carter Yakemchuk's power-play one-timer in the third period stood up as the game-winning goal.

Once again, as has been the case in all three of their wins this season, the victory was bittersweet thanks to another injury.

This time, it was newcomer William Eklund who went down with a lower-body injury in the first period and did not return. Eklund took a clean hit from Flyers defenceman Simon Benoit and had to be helped off the ice, unable to put any weight on his left leg.

Eklund appeared to jam his skate awkwardly into the base of the boards, with the toe of his skate moving upward as if the skate had come off. That makes you think right away that something very bad happened to the ankle or achilles.

But Travis Green had no update on Eklund after the game.

The Senators also lost key players to injury in their first two wins of the season. Jake Sanderson was hurt in Toronto and still isn't skating with the team, while Linus Ullmark was injured in Boston on Monday.

Fortunately, Ullmark was able to return to action Thursday night against the Flyers, stopping 28 of 29 shots. The one goal he allowed was an absolute stinker, but nobody in Ottawa is going to complain about a .966 save percentage on the night.

The Senators opened the scoring midway through the first period when Nick Cousins tipped home a shot from Tyler Kleven.

That lead held up until early in the second, when Matvei Michkov scored one of the easiest goals he'll ever get.

On a Philadelphia power play, Trevor Zegras fired a shot from the top of the circle that Ullmark appeared to see all the way. Somehow, the puck trickled right through him and sat in the crease, fat and juicy, waiting for Michkov to swat it home.

That set the stage for Yakemchuk, who delivered the biggest goal of the night with under seven minutes remaining in regulation.

Claude Giroux made a pass to the rookie defenceman that was perfectly paced and placed for a one-timer. Yakemchuk absolutely blasted it past Joseph Woll for what proved to be the game-winner. While there are certainly still defensive warts that will improve with time, Yakemchuk's cannon of a shot makes him a nice new weapon on the power play.

The Flyers then had the Senators under siege in the final couple of minutes. But the Sens held them off, surviving the late pressure and hanging on for the win.

“You knew Philly was going to play a hell of a game tonight,” Green said. “I thought they did. It was just a greasy, greasy game that had a lot of intensity to it, and we wanted to win that.”

Hoyt Stanley was just happy to be there, making his NHL debut for the Senators as a last-minute call-up from Belleville. Cam Crotty took the morning skate but was under the weather and did not dress.

The Senators officially went 1-for-5 on the power play, although you could make the argument it was more like 2-for-5. Cousins' first-period goal came just four seconds after Travis Sanheim's tripping penalty expired, before the Flyers defenceman had a chance to get back into the play.

Through five games, the Flyers are now 0-3-2 on the year and have scored a grand total of six goals.

After playing their first three games on the road, the Senators can look forward to a little more home cooking. Including Thursday, they're now in a stretch where they play seven of nine games at Canadian Tire Centre, with their next game coming Saturday night at 7 p.m. against the Nashville Predators.

Nashville will arrive in Ottawa fresh off a 5-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday night, despite being badly outshot 34-20.

By Steve Warne
The Hockey News