Alex DeBrincat netted the decisive goal with less than three minutes remaining in the third period, lifting the Ottawa Senators to a 5-4 win over the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night.
Shane Pinto, Jakob Chychrun, Claude Giroux, and Patrick Brown also scored for Ottawa. Mads Sogaard made 29 saves, while Nick Holden and Tim Stutzle each added two assists. Giroux, Mathieu Joseph, and Jake Sanderson also contributed assists.
“A lot of guys are stepping up,” DeBrincat said. “When some guys don’t have it, others put it in the net. That’s good to have, and that’s what good teams have. If we can keep that rolling, we’ll be good.”
Jared McCann scored twice, and Vince Dunn and Jaden Schwartz added goals for the Kraken, ending their five-game winning streak. Philipp Grubauer made 26 saves. Alex Wennberg, Yanni Gourde, and Daniel Sprong each had an assist, with Schwartz extending his point streak to five games.
“I feel like we were rushing the play,” McCann said. “We just gave them free breakouts. We didn’t finish checks in the first 20 minutes of the game. Their defense was jumping by us and getting odd-man rushes.”
Ottawa scored the game’s first three goals and led 3-1 after the first period.
“We gave them every opportunity that they had,” Dunn said. “They’re a very desperate team right now. They’re right in the playoff race. They gave it the best first 10 minutes they had. We need to be prepared. We need to do a better job in our building.”
The Kraken then scored three straight, briefly taking the lead on Dunn’s goal at 3:23 of the third. However, Giroux scored less than a minute later to tie the game.
“That’s a big win for us, to stay with it the way we did and find timely goals,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. “That’s as fast a team as we played, and that’s a good hockey team.”
DeBrincat sealed the Senators’ victory at 17:37, following their 5-0 loss to Chicago on Monday.
“We had a tough game in Chicago,” Pinto said, “but I just think the way we responded and the maturity we showed tonight will go a long way.”
Pinto, Chychrun, and Brown scored in the first period for the Senators. Chychrun, who also had an assist, now has two goals and two assists in three games since joining the team.
“That’s a tough game to play sometimes,” Brown said. “You get up early, and then suddenly, you’re down in the third. We stuck together, and we kept playing the right way. We didn’t try to cheat for offense. We just kept playing the right way, and we got rewarded.”
McCann, who has 33 goals this season, had the Kraken’s lone score in the first period and added another in the second. He has scored in each of the three games Seattle has played against the Senators since the start of the 2021-22 season.
“We scored enough tonight,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “That wasn’t the issue. We gave up too much. It doesn’t have to be a huge volume. It’s what we gave up and how we gave it up tonight, especially in the last 10 minutes of the hockey game.”
Game Notes
- Senators goaltender Cam Talbot, a late scratch for Monday’s game due to a “mid-body injury,” returned to Ottawa on Wednesday for treatment. Coach D.J. Smith announced that Talbot would miss three weeks.
- In his last eight games, Jaden Schwartz has eight points (four goals, four assists).
- Tim Stutzle is 10 assists away from 100.
NEXT UP
- Senators: At Vancouver on Saturday.
- Kraken: Host Dallas on Saturday.
