Jason Dickinson broke a 2-2 deadlock with under two minutes left to give Chicago a 3-2 win over the Senators on Saturday afternoon.
The Ottawa Senators started out a three-game road trip on Saturday afternoon by losing to the worst team in the NHL.
Jason Dickinson scored the game winner with under two minutes to play as the Chicago Blackhawks defeated the visiting Senators 3-2. Former Ottawa 67 Peter Mrazek was excellent, making 40 saves on the day. Joonas Korpisalo made 19 for the Sens.
Connor Bedard led the attack with a goal and an assist and was dangerous on pretty much every shift. Tim Stutzle was Ottawa's catalyst, snapping out of a personal four game pointless streak with a goal and an assist of his own.
Former Senator Nick Foligno opened the scoring for the Hawks at 13:39 of the first period, using his skate to redirect a Philipp Kurashev pass into an open net. A couple of minutes later, Stutzle tied the game with his own tap-in goal on a beautiful feed from Claude Giroux.
Ottawa grabbed a 2-1 advantage at 8:13 of the second period. Stutzle worked his magic again, skating the puck end-to-end. He dropped it for Vladimir Tarasenko, who immediately hit Jakob Chychrun for a one timer, and he made no mistake on a nearly wide open net.
Less than three minutes later, Connor Bedard tied things up with a mediocre shot (at least by his standards) from the slot that trickled through Korpisalo’s pads.
Midway through the third period, the Senators caught a break after Artem Zub’s terrible giveaway to Bedard, who rushed in and deked out Korpisalo. That seemed to make it 3-2 Chicago. But Ottawa challenged for offside and, sure enough, Zub had cleared the zone by a few inches before Bedard intercepted his pass.
But that just delayed the inevitable.
With 1:52 to play, with an Ottawa defender beside him the entire time, Jason Dickinson slowly made his way to the Senators net, unbothered, for a shot on goal and then the burial of his own rebound.
It was the third straight game the 28th place Senators faced a team beneath them in the standings (Columbus, Anaheim, Chicago), making this week feel a little like a relegation tournament. It's good for the Sens that it wasn't because they fared poorly, getting only two of a possible six points.
Now stripped of all momentum from their recent four game winning streak, the Sens will be in Tampa Bay to face their expansion cousins on Monday night.