OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) The Ottawa Senators are looking forward to their upcoming break despite playing some of their best hockey of the season.
Mike Hoffman scored a power-play goal at 4:03 of overtime as the Senators beat the Anaheim Ducks 2-1 on Thursday night for their second four-game win streak of the season.
Hoffman’s one-timer on a pass from Dion Phaneuf beat John Gibson in the Anaheim goal after Andrew Cogliano took a high-sticking minor at 3:23 of the extra period.
“We wanted to finish on a high note and there’s not much of a better way to go into the Christmas break than with four wins in a row. Everyone worked hard and it’s going to be a nice couple of days,” Hoffman said.
Ryan Dzingel scored in regulation for the Senators (20-11-3), who got 24 saves from Mike Condon.
Jakob Silfverberg had the goal for Anaheim (17-12-6) and Gibson made 16 saves, but didn’t face a single shot in the second half of the third period and just the one in overtime that beat him.
“I think for the first 30 minutes we played great and then after that we kind of let them back in the game. We stopped playing the way that made us successful and they took over the game,” Senators captain Erik Karlsson said.
“We stuck to it though and we battled all the way through 64 minutes. It’s a well-deserved Christmas break for everybody in here and everybody is excited about it.”
With the score tied 1-1 early in the third, the Senators were put in a tough situation when Bobby Ryan took a four-minute minor for high sticking, giving the league’s second-ranked power play and extended opportunity.
Other than when things got hectic around the Ottawa net in the final 20 seconds of the power play, the Senators really didn’t allow the Ducks to create any sustained pressure.
“We could have scored on the power play and that would have been the difference in the game. We had a full four-minute power play that we didn’t really generate enough with and it didn’t give us any momentum,” Ducks coach Randy Carlyle said.
“We still stayed with our game plan and that’s more of the type of hockey that it’s going to take to have success on the road, and we know that.”
The Ducks wrapped up their six-game, 10-day road trip 2-3-1, which included a 6-1 loss in Montreal Tuesday.
“We ran out of gas and we didn’t have any life. We had a 2-1 hockey game (in Montreal) going into the third and they exploded and got four in the third on us. I didn’t want that to happen (again) so I feel real good about our performance. We didn’t get the extra point but we’ll move on.”
The teams produced just 11 shots on goal through a scoreless first period, with the only real scoring chance coming late when Jean Gabriel Pageau redirected a shot just wide of the Anaheim goal.
Both teams got on the board in the second period, with the Senators scoring early to take a 1-0 lead before the Ducks scored very late to tie the game.
Dzingel took a pass from Kyle Turris and beat Gibson with a shot just under the crossbar from the left hash mark at 1:02.
The Ducks thought they tied it with just over minute to play, but the goal by Nick Ritchie was immediately waved off as Corey Perry had backed into Condon in the crease.
Perry redeemed himself a minute later when his no-look, through-the-legs pass landed right on the stick of Silfverberg, who scored a power-play goal with 10 seconds to play in the period.
Shots on goal through the first 40 minutes favored Anaheim by a low 14-12 count.