Ottawa Senators

Senators take over first in Atlantic with win over Avalanche
March 12, 2017, 7:09 AM ET [6 Comments]
Jared Crozier
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A 4-2 win and a sweep of their three game bottom dwelling road trip was enough for the Ottawa Senators to finally track down the Montreal Canadiens and move into a tie for first in the Atlantic Division. The two teams are tied for first, but Ottawa holds a game in hand on the Habs, so they sit in the first seed.

I feel sorry for the goaltenders that suit up for the Avalanche, because if last night was any indication, they aren't getting much help at all. Colorado was a turnover machine, unable to fend off pressure and played into Ottawa's forecheck game to a T, and if not for some brilliant saves by Chet Pickard it could have (an maybe should have) been 7 or 8 to 2.

The Senators got off to a slow start and Colorado opened and closed the scoring, but in between it was all Ottawa, and despite Pickard's heroics it seemed like it was only a matter of time, and it was.

Heading into the second period down a goal, the Senators tallied three straight times in the back half of the second period, with goals from Freddie Claesson, Alex Burrows and Mike Hoffman. Ryan Dzingel added one midway through the third to make it 4-1 and Sven Andrighetto scored a meaningless power play goal with 12 seconds left to make it look closer than it was.

Dzingel made the questionable decision to challenge Gabriel Landeskog to a fight late in the third period, with the game no longer in doubt. Given the fact that the Senators are already playing without 3 of their top 6 forwards (4 if you include Clarke MacArthur), having a relatively inexperienced fighter (2 previous NHL tilts) risk an injury in a meaningless scrap might not have been high on Guy Boucher's wish list.

Ottawa got through the road trip and are perfect in March, or since the trade deadline brought in some much needed depth that has been tested with Mark Stone joining Kyle Turris and Bobby Ryan on the sidelines. Turris could be back for Tuesday's game against the Lightning but Stone could be out a bit longer with a lower body injury.

Erik Karlsson continues to put pressure on Brent Burns in the Norris Trophy race. I think it might be a bit late to overtake the Shark as most minds might have already been made up, but given the stats, the expectations of their respective teams and the underlying stats you could already make a solid case for Karlsson. Karlsson had two more assists against the Avalanche, bringing his total to 50 for the season, two behind Connor McDavid for the league lead.

The Senators return home to face the Lightning on Tuesday, before a stretch of games that will determine what seed they will have for the playoffs, with games against Chicago, Pittsburgh, Montreal (x3), and Boston in the next two weeks.