To beat the Bruins these days it takes a Herculean effort from someone from the opposition. That someone for the Ottawa Senators was goalie Cam Talbot.
Talbot made 49 saves in regulation and overtime and then ws not beaten by any of the three Bruin shooters in the shootout and the Senators came away with the 3-2 shootout victory at the Canadian Tire Center on Tuesday.
The only player to beat Jeremy Swayman in the shootout was Alex DeBrincat, but that was good enough as Charlie Coyle, Jake DeBrusk and David Pastrnak could not get one by Talbot.
The B’s entered the third down 2-1 and barraged Ottawa goalie Cam Talbot with 27 shots. They finally got one by him late in the period to push it to overtime.
Talbot made a great glove arm save on David Pastrnak on a 3-on-1 with 5:46 left in regulation, but Travis Hamonic was called for hooking behind the play. But on the power play, Talbot was even more spectacular, turning away eight shots on the PP.
But after the advantage, the Sens were still scrambling and Pavel Zacha broke an 18-game goal-less streak dating back to November 13 with 3:33 left in regulation, sneaking a wrist shot underneath the goalie from the left circle for his fourth goal of the year.
In overtime, it was Swayman’s turn to shine again as he had earlier in the game. He turned away six shots in OT, including a breakaway from Brady Tkachuk in the waning seconds. Swayman made 31 saves in all.
The last time the B’s were in Ottawa back on October 18, one of the B’s four regulation losses on the season, the B’s were not good and Jeremy Swayman could not bail them out. He gave up three first period goals and the B’s were in chase mode all night.
On Wednesday early on, the B’s were a bit better, but they still gave up some Grade A chances. This time, Swayman came up big in a scoreless first. The B’s outshot the Sens 14-11, but Ottawa had a handful of excellent chances. Swayman stopped both Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stutzle on breakaways, and made another terrific stop on Tkachuk on a Senator power play.
The B’s meanwhile, had some decent chances, the best of which went to Craig Smith. The winger was all alone in front and tried to roof it, but Cam Talbot made a terrific glove stop.
It looked like the B’s had taken the first lead of the game at 2:25 of the second period when, after a dominant shift inside the Ottawa zone, Patrice Bergeron snapped a shortside wrister past Talbot. But well before the B’s grinded the Sens down, Brad Marchand had brought the puck into the zone before Bergeron could tag up and the goal rightly came off the board, as frustrating as it may have been.
The B’s survived the Sens’ first power play in the first period, but when Trent Frederic closed his hand on the puck after losing his stick in the defensive slot, ottawa made the B’s pay. Stutzle ripped a one-timer off a Thomas Chabot pass and the Sens were up at 8:11.
But the B’s would not let them get too far away, thanks to a terrific play by Jake DeBrusk. Just 2:22 after the Stutzle goal, he took a touch pass from Bergeron in the neutral zone and made a great shift around Chabot at the blue line. His initial shortside shot just missed the net but it hit a stanchion and bounced right back to him for the tap in after Talbot had already moved to the other post.
Alex DeBrincat, however, gave the Sens the lead again at 13:37. On what looked like could have been a too many men call on Ottawa, Bergeron’s chip up the boards hit DeBrincat as he was still on the boards before changing on. Thanks to that deflection, the Sens’ controlled the puck and went on the attack. DeBrincat got behind Charlie McAvoy for a quick break-in and lifted a shot past Swayman’s glove arm.
Coach Jim Montgomery gave it to the officials after that and the B’s did get the next power play, but they could not cash in and went into the second intermission down a goal.
