Sens’ Losing Streak Continues as They Fall to Canucks

The Ottawa Senators’ early season woes continued on Wednesday night as they fell 5-1 to the Vancouver Canucks for their sixth straight loss.

Vancouver broke the ice just two minutes in as Tyler Motte pounced on a rebound, beating Sens backup Marcus Hogberg on the second shot of the night – certainly not the start the Senators wanted.

Ottawa responded quickly, though, tying the game up on the power play just six minutes later. Set up on the right half wall, Josh Norris threw the puck towards the net looking for a tip. The puck bounced around and through the mad scramble Norris was able to follow up and whack it home, giving the rookie his second goal of the season. 

Vancouver was fortunate to hold onto a 1-1 tie going into the intermission as the Sens peppered Canucks goaltender Thatcher Demko with 24 shots through the first 20 minutes.

The Sens’ early domination, however, did not bleed into the second period as Vancouver took over. Following a Mike Reilly giveaway at the Ottawa blue line, the Canucks picked up the puck and came back on an odd-man rush. Elias Pettersson dropped the puck back to Quinn Hughes who slid it cross-ice to JT Miller for a sweet tic-tac-toe goal to put the Canucks up 2-1 just over a minute into the frame.

Miller doubled up just a few minutes later, scoring on his own rebound and tallying the Canucks’ third goal on just their 14th shot of the night.

The siege continued as the Canucks went to the power play late in the period, with Pettersson rifling his second goal of the season past Hogberg to put Vancouver up 4-1.

Vancouver wasn’t quite done there as Motte potted his second goal of the game on a bizarre bounce. Jay Beagle took a shot from the right wing and after about half a dozen deflections the puck finally ricocheted off Reilly and into the net, giving Vancouver a 5-1 lead that they held until the final buzzer.

A sleepy second period is what ultimately cost the Sens as they let off the gas and allowed the Canucks to outscore them 3-0 in the frame. For a rebuilding Ottawa team that lacks high-end talent compared to their Canadian foes, a consistent 60 minute effort will be key in order to pick up wins. Unfortunately, the Senators didn’t produce that on Wednesday night.

Outscored 12-2 through the first two games of this three-game series, the Senators will have one more crack at the Canucks on Thursday night at 10:00 pm.