Ottawa Senators dump Ducks, hats hit the ice for Drake Batherson's ...

As the hats were being heaved onto the ice in bunches Wednesday, Drake Batherson and Ottawa Senators teammate Claude Giroux were having a good chuckle on the bench.

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It was that kind of night for the Senators, players laughing, breathing in the atmosphere when Batherson scored his third goal of the game midway through the second period, with officials and arena employees scrambling to pick up the discarded hats.

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Plenty of fans left Canadian Tire Centre hatless, yet happy, as the Senators played with plenty of zip in a 5-1 win over the Anaheim Ducks.

“I said to the boys, it’s been like 230 games or something since my last (hat trick),” Batherson said.

“Everything he was shooting tonight was going in,” Senators centre Tim Stutzle said.

The ice mostly seemed tilted toward the Anaheim end; that’s where most of the action took place. Senators goalie Linus Ullmark was good when he had to be, but he had plenty of help.

“It was a pretty solid game,” Senators coach Travis Green said. “I loved our start, I loved the way we played through the course of the game.

“It was important we come out ready to play, focus mentally and engage physically; we did that tonight.”

Ottawa took control in the first period, taking a 3-0 lead, outshooting the Ducks 18-9.

The Senators scored 2:55 into the game. After a sloppy line change by Anaheim, Noah Gregor picked up a rebound and knocked it past Ducks goalie John Gibson.

“You want contributions throughout the lineup,” Green said. “Our three (top lines) are on top of their game. For your fourth line to go out and score a goal early – I felt like our team was on its toes from the drop of the puck – it’s big when your fourth line can contribute.”

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“We were ready to go right from the jump,” Gregor said. “We try to work hard, play with pace and play competitively. I thought we did a good job of that.”

The Senators took advantage of a lengthy two-man advantage (former 67’s defenceman Pavel Mintyukov was in the penalty box for holding and five seconds later, Radko Gudas was sent off for delay of game when he shot the puck over the glass) with a Batherson goal with 8:45 left in the first period. But it took a video review and plenty of time to sort out that the puck had crossed the goal line.

“I had no idea (if it was in),” Batherson said. “I put my hands up trying to sell it, but I couldn’t see anything. Brady (Tkachuk) came up to me and said he saw it go in. It was nice to see one fall our way.”

Ottawa made it 3-0 on Batherson’s second power-play goal, with the puck deflected into the net by Ducks defenceman Cam Fowler.

With 9:30 left in the second period, Batherson scored his third goal.

The Senators found themselves in an extended short-handed situation, taking hooking (Josh Norris) and slashing (Claude Giroux) penalties in the final minute and a half of the second. But the Senators didn’t allow much in the way of scoring chances. It was a good night for the Senators on the penalty kill; they stopped all five Anaheim opportunities with the man advantage.

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Ten seconds into a power play, Tkachuk made it 5-0 with 11:02 left. Batherson got his fourth point of the game, an assist.

A poor clearing attempt by Ullmark was intercepted along the boards with 7:18 left and Cutter Gauthier slid the puck past the goalie.

Green likes the “hat trick tradition.”

“Being a fan of the game, I love it,” he said. “Being a coach, you’re trying to keep your team moving in the right direction and keep momentum going, but I think it’s awesome fans do that.”

For the record, fans can retrieve the hats they’ve tossed. The ones that aren’t picked up are put into lost and found. After a few weeks, if unclaimed and they’re not in rough shape, they’re cleaned and donated to charities.

It was the first “natural” hat trick (three straight goals) by a Senator since Tkachuk did it Dec. 11, 2021.

Green said before the game he wants his team to get “greasy.”

Not in an oily sort of way, the Senators coach specifically wants his players to get “a little greasier around the net.”

He wants his players to go to the net, look for a bounce, a rebound, maybe a deflection.

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“It’s not easy to score,” Green said. “There aren’t a lot of natural goal scorers in the league where when they get a chance, it’s in the net. We’ve got a few guys who have been snakebitten. One way to score is the old-fashioned way and that’s to get to the blue paint.”

Mission accomplished Wednesday.

Stutzle is on a roll, especially on home ice. With two assists Wednesday, the Senators centre has a point in all but two of Ottawa’s 16 games at Canadian Tire Centre (seven goals and 18 assists). With 25 home points, he’s tied for first in the NHL with Toronto’s Mitch Marner (16 games) and Colorado’s Nathan MacKinnon and Carolina’s Martin Necas (14 games each).

The Ducks were once mightier. Owned by Disney, the 1993-94 expansion team was then known as the Mighty Ducks; it became just the Ducks in 2005.

Remember the Mighty Ducks movie(s)? Coach Bombay? Greg Goldberg? Connie Moreau? Russ Tyler? The Bash Brothers? The knucklepuck? My kids loved it.

Remember the 2006-07 season? The Senators’ history would have looked much different had they won the Stanley Cup, but, alas, it was the Ducks who became champions, beating Ottawa 4-1 in the best-of-seven final.

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