Drake Batherson’s goal late in regulation broke a deadlock and gave the visiting Ottawa Senators a 3-2 victory over the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday.
Nick Cousins and Shane Pinto also scored for Ottawa, which kicked off a seven-game road trip on a positive note.
Goaltender Linus Ullmark made 24 saves in the victory, 11 of them in the third period.
Beckett Sennecke and Mason McTavish replied for the Ducks, who saw their six-game home winning streak snapped but remain atop the Pacific Division standings.
Goalie Petr Mrazek stopped 22 shots.
With overtime looming after the Senators withstood Anaheim’s third-period push, Batherson was parked in front of the net and deflected Jake Sanderson’s point shot with 1:58 remaining in regulation.
The Ducks pushed frantically for the equalizer until the final buzzer but could not find the game-tying tally.
It was a back-and-forth affair with both clubs taking and then surrendering a lead.
Cousins opened the scoring at the 16:39 mark with a rocket of a slap shot from the high slot when he was trailer on an odd-man rush
The Ducks responded with a pair of goals 86 seconds apart past the midway point of the second period. Sennecke tied the clash with a tap-in tally set up by Cutter Gauthier during an odd-man rush at 13:08 of the frame.
Then McTavish put Anaheim ahead by finishing a textbook 2-on-1 rush with Chris Kreider.
However, Pinto’s power-play goal in the final minute of the second period tied the clash. He tucked home a close-in deke after eluding a check on the rush. Stephen Halliday, a 2022 fourth-round draft pick, assisted the goal, earning his first point in his NHL debut.
–Field Level Media
