'Had to do something': Senators rally to stun Predators

The Ottawa Senators stormed back from an early three-goal deficit on Monday to defeat the Nashville Predators 4-3 in overtime.

Ottawa fell behind 3-0 with one minute left in the first period. The team rallied to tie the game with three second-period goals of their own before Claude Giroux provided the overtime winner.

“We showed our maturity from all the lessons that we’ve learned,” captain Brady Tkachuk said of the win. “In the past, it could’ve gotten away from us, but we stuck to it, stuck to our game and really emphasized doing it as a team versus trying to do it individually.”

Interim head coach Jacques Martin elected to replace starter Mads Sogaard after he allowed three goals on 11 shots, sending Joonas Korpisalo out to start the second period. The 29-year-old stopped all 17 shots he faced in relief.

“I didn’t want to wait because I think that we needed a bit of a shock,” Martin said of the decision. “Like, maybe to wake up the rest of the guys. So, we changed our goalies, changed our lines and kind of started from fresh and really tried to put some more pressure. I think our [defencemen] pinched more, and I thought we had more sustained pressure and were able to capitalize.

“Our goaltending made some big saves too. [Korpisalo] made some key saves when we made a couple of mistakes. I thought it was a great team effort.”

The Senators were able to bounce back Monday after a 7-2 drubbing at the hands of the New York Rangers on Saturday. Ottawa led 2-0 in the second period of that game before New York stormed back with five goals in just over 11 minutes. 

“I think we were pretty frustrated after getting smoked last game and coming out in the first and being down 3-zip,” forward Drake Batherson said. “Had to do something.”

Ottawa still has one game remaining before their All-Star break, on the road against the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday. After improving to 19-25-2 on the season with Monday's win, the Senators remain 17 points back of the Red Wings for the final wild-card spot, with two games in-hand.