Captain Brady Tkachuk’s hat-trick seals Senators’ win over Jackets

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SENATORS 6, JACKETS 3

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A trip of the cap to Brady Tkachuk.

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The Ottawa Senators’ captain scored his second career hat-trick to extend the club’s winning streak to a season-high four games in a 6-3 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets in front of 15,203 at the Canadian Tire Centre.

It was Tkachuk’s first three-goal effort since Dec. 11, 2021 in a 4-0 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning. Erik Brannstrom, Ridly Greig and Claude Giroux also chipped in as Anton Forsberg returned for the first time in a month after being activated off the long-term injury reserve earlier in the day.

“Everybody stepped up and Forsberg played awesome for us as well,” said Tkachuk. “You’re seeing a lot of guys stepping up and that’s the expectation as to how we want to play.”

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This was Forsberg’s first appearance in the Ottawa net since Jan. 11 when he suffered a right groin injury in Buffalo. It was a bit of a surprise because Joonas Korpisalo was 4-1-1 in his last six starts.

“I liked how we battled. It wasn’t pretty ” said Martin. “Being short a defenceman I thought the guys played hard.”

But Jacques Martin is a big believer in studying the numbers and Forsberg had a strong record against his former team. He came into this game with a 2-2-0 lifetime record versus Columbus with a 1.77 goals-against average and a .944 save-percentage.

Forsberg had to make some big stops as the Jackets pushed the pace in the third. It didn’t help that the Senators had to play one man short because defenceman Artem Zub wasn’t able to suit up and the club didn’t have any cap space to to recall anybody.

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AROUND THE BOARDS

The difference in this game were the special teams. The Senators scored twice on the power play while the Jackets were 0-for-4 with the man-advantage … Giroux had a two-point effort. That moved him into sole possession of 77th place all time in league scoring with 1,047 points in 1,149 NHL games. That’s one point ahead of former Montreal Canadiens great Henri Richard. Pretty strong company …  Ottawa D Jakob Chychrun was given a penalty for “removing an opponent’s helmet”. Haven’t seen that one too often … This win moved Ottawa to 11-10-2 since Martin took over behind the bench. Brannstrom put it away into an empty net.

OFF THE GLASS

The Senators let their lead slowly start to slip away in the second. They were up 4-1, but the Jackets closed the gap to 4-3 on the strength of Jack Roslovic’s third of the season at 13:54. Forsberg bit on the pass and Roslovic fired it through a crowd. Suddenly, it was a little concerning, but Tkachuk scored his third of the night at 16:48 by beating Columbus goalie Danill Tarasov and everybody was able to breathe easy with the club up 5-3 … Forsberg didn’t look good on Boone Jenner’s 16th of the year at 10:40 of the second that cut Ottawa’s lead to 4-2. Jenner took a pass and fired it by Forsberg on the glove side. He needs to make that stop … Greig scored his ninth of the season at 5:37 of the second and extended the club’s lead to 4-1. He tipped a shot from Vladimir Tarasenko that was going wide by Tarasov. “We were on the heels for the start of this period, we killed off the penalty nicely, they were in our end the whole time. Greig takes some pressure off and, hopefully, we can get going,” assistant Daniel Alfredsson told TSN’s Claire Hanna during a break in the second … Forsberg started the period by robbing Johnny Gaudreau.

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UNDER REVIEW

The Senators looked like they had scored two shorthanded goals in a span of 23 seconds, but the second one was taken back.

Giroux picked up his second point of the night by firing a blast by Tarasov at 14:46 of the first to give the club a 3-1 lead.

It looked like Mathieu Joseph had extended the lead to three goals at 15:09, but after a lengthy review the NHL’s situation room ruled that there was goaltender interference.

“Joseph made contact with Tarasov in the crease, causing him to spin and the puck to enter the net,” the league said in its decision.

Two shorthanded goals in 23 seconds would have been a franchise mark.

THE FINAL BUZZER

Tkachuk scored twice in a span of 48 seconds to give the club a 2-1 lead at 10:36 of the first. He picked up his own rebound to give the club the advantage on an odd-man rush and opened the scoring for the Senators on the power play at 9:48 … The goal by Tkachuk came just after Tarasenko hit the post with the man-advantage …. The Jackets opened the scoring with a fluke goal at 7:11 of the first. While it was awarded to Dmitri Vornokov, it didn’t appear he touched Kent Johnson’s attempted pass to the front of the net and it bounced off the skate of Jacob Bernard-Docker by Forsberg. He had no chance on it … The crowd cheered when Greig touched the puck in the first. Just for good measure, the Senators showed his empty-netter against the Leafs on the scoreboard during the pre-game … Elvis Merzlikins was dressed as the backup for the Jackets, but wasn’t on the bench. He was reportedly under the weather and would only play if necessary … There is talk among league executives the Senators are among several teams that have kicked tires on Arizona Coyotes D Matt Dumba. He’s a UFA on July 1 and fits the bill for the type of veteran players that this organization wants to have.

BGarrioch@postmedia.com

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