BLUE JACKETS 4, SENATORS 1
How low can they go?
That is the question after the Ottawa Senators’ latest defeat, to the visiting Columbus Blue Jackets.
A third-period outburst – three goals – ended what had been a goaltending duel, a battle of the backups between Ottawa’s Robin Lehner and the Blue Jackets’ Curtis McElhinney.
After the Blue Jackets’ fourth goal, Lehner threw his stick in disgust, and heard about it afterward from head coach Dave Cameron.
“I don’t like it,” Cameron said. “You want your team to be emotional, but no matter why you’re doing it, right there it looks like you’re showing your team up. To me, that’s what it looks like.”
Lehner wasn’t exactly apologetic.
“It’s unacceptable by me but I’m a competitive guy,” Lehner said. “I’m not going to excuse myself for that, I don’t want to let in goals, I don’t want to lose and I think we gave away the third one in a row here. It stinks.”
At times the game seemed better suited to a sleep clinic than a hockey arena, but then pre-game expectations weren’t exactly sky high for teams rated 12th (Ottawa) and 14th (Columbus) in the Eastern Conference at the drop of the puck. The spectacle was witnessed by 16,891 at the Canadian Tire Centre.
The combination of the Blue Jackets’ win and a Toronto Maple Leafs win dropped the Senators to 14th in the conference to the delight of some in Ottawa who want to see the team have a shot at a top draft pick.
The Jackets finally scored the game’s first goal at 4:13 of the third period after a slick play started by centre Ryan Johansen, who swooped to his backhand to direct the puck to Scott Hartnell in front. Hartnell’s shot rebounded to Cam Atkinson, who had two whacks at it on the backhand, the second attempt sliding underneath Lehner’s pads.
A few minutes later, former Senators winger Nick Foligno made it 2-0 on a gorgeous solo effort. Foligno, who scored a few like this in Ottawa, used his body to fend off Cody Ceci and tucked a backhand under Lehner for his 21st goal of the season.
That might have been it, except that Erik Condra chipped a puck over McElhinney’s shoulder to make a game of things at 10:22 of the third. Centre Kyle Turris had the tying goal on his stick, but his wrist shot from close in hit the post.
“It’s extremely frustrating,” Turris said. “Down 2-1, I hit a post on an open net. It’s 2-2 if I bury that. It changes the momentum of the game. They come down and make it 3-1. It’s very frustrating.”
Equally agonizing was the shot by Mark Stone in the final minutes that drifted over the net when he was staring at nothing but net.
“That has to go in,” Stone said. “I take full responsibility for that. At that time of the game, to tie it there, at the worst we probably get it to overtime. It’s frustrating for me. At this time of the year, you can’t just get chances, you have to score.”
Afterward, Cameron said he thought Stone was his best player, despite a -4 next to his name.
Hartnell ended the third-period drama with an empty-net goal, a high floater that hit Erik Karlsson’s hand and slid into the open cage. Mark Letestu then drifted in to make it 4-1 in the final dozen seconds, prompting Lehner to toss his stick.
This was the last of three meetings between these non-rivals, and for that we can probably give thanks.
The Senators beat the Blue Jackets twice in October, when Columbus was wracked with player losses. They came into Ottawa with 317 man-games lost to injury. While the Jackets have been healthier of late, they lost two starters in Friday’s 7-1 rout of the St. Louis Blues, defencemen James Wisniewski and Ryan Murray. Starting goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky is still out with a groin injury. He last played on Jan. 21 against the Winnipeg Jets.
McElhinney has not exactly shone in relief, and the Senators looked forward to facing him again after putting five goals past him in a 5-2 victory on Oct. 28, but he had a strong outing in this rematch.
His goalposts helped as well, never more so than in the second period when Senators winger Stone drifted across the middle in the high slot and clanged a wrist shot off the post. Stone finished with six shots on goal.
At the other end, Lehner made a brilliant glove save off Atkinson, not long after stopping a redirection tipped by Atkinson.
The shots after two periods were 24-22 for Columbus in a scoreless game. In the end, McElhinney stopped 34 Ottawa shots to earn the game’s first star. Lehner stopped 29 of 32, with one into an empty net.
The first period had even fewer scoring chances, despite man-advantage opportunities for both teams. The Senators had back-to-back power plays in the middle of the period but failed to generate anything substantial at McElhinney. The Blue Jackets had one power play late in the period but had trouble getting set up in the zone, as J.G. Pageau interrupted a couple of passes with stick checks.
GAME FILE
WHY THEY LOST
As usual, a momentary lapse made the difference — two quick strikes by the Jackets in the third period.
CHEERS
To the hockey royalty in the crowd. Hall of Fame coach Brian Kilrea and his wife, Judy.
JEERS
To a scoring slump that has seen the Senators starved for goals since that rare 7-2 outburst against the Arizona Coyotes Jan. 31. In the three subsequent games, the Sens have scored three goals.
PATIENT PAGEAU
Rosters can change in an instant. On Saturday, that worked in favour of Jean-Gabriel Pageau. Tabbed as a healthy scratch at the morning skate, Pageau did play after all, a last-minute replacement for winger Milan Michalek, who was ill.
ANDY UPDATE
While Andrew Hammond again backed up Lehner against Columbus, Senators head coach Dave Cameron said he wouldn’t rule out No. 1 goaltender Craig Anderson making the trip to Buffalo for Tuesday’s game against the Sabres. If Anderson goes, he would serve as Lehner’s backup. Anderson suffered a right (blocker) hand injury against the Toronto Maple Leafs before the all-star break.
wscanlan@ottawacitizen.com
