2023-12-18 03:38:00
LAS VEGAS, Nev. – The Ottawa Senators collapsed by allowing three unanswered goals in the second period, en route to a crushing 6-3 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday night.
The Sens (11-15-0), whose fourth consecutive loss in regulation time, nevertheless held off the Knights in the first period thanks to their numerical superiority unit.
After a Jack Eichel goal at 1:37 at the expense of Joonas Korpisalo, Ottawa made Vegas pay dearly for its indiscipline, as Josh Norris and Ridly Greig scored just over four minutes apart.
Norris’ goal ended the night for goalkeeper Adin Hill, who appeared to reaggravate an injury that had just forced him to sit out a few weeks.
The fact that Hill got the start was also greeted with a certain surprise during the warm-up.
Logan Thompson took over for Hill, and quickly gave way to Greig. But gradually, the very uninspired game of the Sens made his task much easier.
Collapse in the 2nd period
Jonathan Marchessault first moved the strings to tie the game 2-2 less than three minutes after Greig’s goal.
But it was in the middle period that everything went wrong for DJ Smith’s troupe, who left Korpisalo to his own devices, notably during a breakthrough granted to Mark Stone and Chandler Stephenson during a massive attack, and leading to the latter’s goal.
Nicolas Roy and Ivan Barbashev also rocked the T-Mobile Arena during the second period.
“The second period continues to hurt us,” noted Smith. Currently, [notre problème] is mental more than anything else. »
William Karlsson added more early in the final period to increase the Knights’ lead to 6-2.
In total, eleven different skaters from the Knights (21-6-5) collected at least one point.
Captain Brady Tkachuk offered his side little consolation by scoring at 18:39 of the third, assisted by Drake Batherson and Norris.
“The level of effort and the mentality will have to change,” Smith analyzed succinctly after the defeat.
Ottawa shot Hill and Thompson 25 times, while Vegas put 31 shots on target against Korpisalo.
Bruce Cassidy’s men come first in the overall NHL standings, three points ahead of Vancouver, as well as four points ahead of Boston and the New York Rangers.
The Sens are seven points behind – and also six games in hand – on the Buffalo Sabres, who are penultimate in the Atlantic Division standings.
Ottawa finds itself eight points behind the Montreal Canadiens, who have played four more games.
Two games remain in the Sens’ five-game road streak; they will be in Arizona on Tuesday, then in Colorado on Thursday.
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