Shane Pinto picked a pretty memorable way to spend his 26th birthday.
The Ottawa Senators centre finished with three points and scored the overtime winner in a 4-3 victory over the Colorado Avalanche on Thursday night at Canadian Tire Centre, giving Ottawa a huge result in front of 16,129 fans. Pinto’s second goal of the game came 2:08 into the extra session, sealing a finish that pushed the Senators to a 2-0-1 record on their three-game homestand.
Ottawa had to work for it. The Senators jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period, then watched Colorado claw back and go ahead 3-2 in the third before the home side answered again. Drake Batherson tied it at 15:39 of the third with his 10th goal of the season, setting the stage for Pinto’s winner.
“It’s pretty cool,” a smiling Pinto said. “It’s just a cool day.
You can’t take these moments for granted. I was just glad we got the win.
It was a cool way to end it.”
Batherson’s goal came after Ottawa had spent much of the night trying to solve Colorado goalie Scott Wedgewood. He described the sequence as a greasy one after the Senators had already generated chances without finishing.
“You get five, six shots after two periods, and can’t seem to put one in the ocean, and then you get a greasy one. It seems to be always the way, but happy was a big time of the game,” said Batherson, who was on the doorstep when he beat Colorado goalie Scott Wedgewood.
The Senators also got a big lift from Linus Ullmark, who made 26 saves in his first game in three months. It was his return after missing nine games because of a lower-body strain suffered on Oct. 21 against the Florida Panthers.
At the time of the injury, Ullmark had been one of the NHL’s hottest goalies, carrying a 1.33 goals-against average and a .945 save percentage in eight starts, along with a 7-1-0 record. Against Colorado, he looked sharp again right away, including highlight-reel stops on Brock Nelson and Jaden Schwartz.
“It was awesome,” Stutzle said. “In the first, he made some unreal saves where we really thought the puck was in. He’s such a good goalie, we have so much confidence back there, and it’s great to have him back.”
Colorado made Ottawa sweat late. After captain Gabriel Landskog put the Avalanche ahead 3-2 with 9:57 left in the third, the Senators refused to let the game slip away.
There was also concern around the Avalanche bench, with all-star forward Nathan MacKinnon and top defenceman Cale Makar not coming out for the third period.
The Avalanche entered the night as the NHL’s highest-scoring team, with 78 goals in 19 games, but Ottawa had its own lineup issues to manage. The Senators were already without winger Nick Cousins for at least a week after he absorbed a big hit from Jakob Chychrun against the Caps, and Sammy Blais was inserted after being a healthy scratch on Wednesday.
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For a team leaning on depth and resilience, the timing could hardly be more important with Linus Ullmark returning to the crease. Ottawa has needed steady goaltending to survive the attrition, and now it gets a chance to see whether its No. 1 can help stabilize things as the injuries continue to pile up around him. [Read more 🡒]