The Senators came within a whisker of turning a disaster into a statement night in Los Angeles, but the comeback ended one goal short. Ottawa erased a four-goal deficit in the third period, forced overtime, and still walked away with only one point after a 6-5 loss to the Kings at Crypto.com Arena.
It was the kind of game that swung wildly from ugly to electric. Ottawa had been buried after a brutal second period that saw the team fall apart and goaltender Jonas Johansson chased in favor of Samuel Ersson. By the time the third period began, the Senators were staring at a 5-1 hole.
Then the rally hit. Drake Batherson, Dylan Cozens, and Tyler Kleven joined the comeback push as Ottawa scored four times in the final frame to make it 5-5. Shane Pinto delivered the tying goal with Samuel Ersson pulled for an extra attacker and only 1:40 remaining in regulation.
The Senators were still alive heading to overtime, but Quinton Byfield ended it at 3:37, leaving Ersson without his first win with the club.
“It was almost a tale of three games,” said coach Travis Green. “First period, we had a lot of good looks.
I thought we should have come out of that period with the lead. The second period we were atrocious and then we had a great third period.”
Ottawa had every reason to feel it let one slip early. Green’s read matched the flow of the night: a strong opening, a collapse in the middle, and a furious finish that still wasn’t enough. For the first time this season, the Senators are winless in two after seeing their heroic effort come up short.
Cozens was right at the center of the pushback, scoring twice in the rally. He didn’t sugarcoat what put Ottawa in that position in the first place.
“It’s not good enough by us,” Cozens told the club’s website. “We gave them too much in the second period and dug ourselves a hole.
We did battle back and get a point. It’s a big point, but we put ourselves in a bad position.”
He added: “We wanted to show our character and show we weren’t going to go down without a fight. Just play our game. We found a way to get back into it.”
The comeback gathered steam quickly. Batherson and Cozens struck 33 seconds apart in the third period to drag Ottawa within two, and from there the Senators kept pressing until Pinto finally finished the job with the extra skater on the ice. In the end, though, the opening period chances and the third-period surge only added up to one point, not two.
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Senators Rally Raises A Bigger Question Than The Overtime Loss
The Senators turned what looked like a runaway loss into a wild finish against the Kings, erasing a 5-1 deficit with four unanswered goals in the third period to force overtime. Dylan Cozens and Drake Batherson helped drive the surge, giving Ottawa a burst of life after it had spent much of the night chasing the game, while Corey Perry kept the Kings dangerous on the other side.
Even with the comeback, the 6-5 overtime loss only sharpened the bigger question around Ottawa: how a team can look so buried, then suddenly find that kind of push when the game seems out of reach. Quinton Byfield ended it for Los Angeles in overtime, but the Senators left with a reminder that the fight is there, even if the result still slipped away. [Read more 🡒]
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Belleville had to make a move of its own in response, signing Kyle McDonald to a professional tryout contract to help fill the gap left behind. For Ottawa, the bigger question is how long this patchwork arrangement lasts, especially with one injured winger facing a longer absence and another still awaiting a clearer read on the severity of his setback. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Let Ottawa Back In And It Nearly Cost Them
The Senators had the kind of night that can leave a coach shaking his head, because they looked in control early before the game turned sharply in Los Angeles. Ottawa still got three-point efforts from Dylan Cozens, Tim Sttzle and Drake Batherson, but it was not enough to protect a lead that slipped away as the Kings answered with a long run of offense.
Jonas Johanssons night ended after he gave up four goals on 16 shots, and Samuel Ersson had to take over in relief, making 20 saves to finish it out. For Ottawa, the second straight loss was especially frustrating because the scoring was there and the start was there, but the back half of the game left far too much to clean up. [Read more 🡒]