Ottawa Senators knock off falling Stars

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It wasn’t just what the Ottawa Senators did with the puck Thursday night, it was what they did away from it — in coachspeak, “the little things.”

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If you’re looking to rank efforts, an impressive 4-1 victory over the Dallas Stars had to be among Ottawa’s best of the season. The Senators outshot the Stars (30-15), they outhit them (30-22) and they blocked more shots (25-19).

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Dallas went into the game as the second-best team in the West and fifth-best team in the league. The Stars didn’t play to that standard Thursday, but the tenacity of the Senators played a big part in that.

“When we play the system to a tee like that, that’s what happens,” said Josh Norris, who scored twice for the Senators and looked good on the third line with Drake Batherson and Ridly Greig. “It’s not going to be perfect every time, but that’s a game we can look back on and use as a baseline to know we can play that way and make it frustrating on other teams.

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“We gave up 15 shots, it’s hard for the other team to score when you do that.”

Ottawa suffocated a team tied for second (with Colorado), behind just Vancouver, in goals scored this season heading into Thursday.

“I thought we played an excellent game,” said Senators coach Jacques Martin. “The more you control the puck and then, when you do lose it, if you work hard at getting it back, you have more of a chance of being successful.

“Part of the key to success is getting different people raising their game. Tonight, the Norris line was really good, some nights it’s been (Tim Stutzle’s line), other nights, it’s been Pinto.”

The Senators outworked the Stars in the first two periods, then carried that over into the final period.

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“The biggest thing for us going into third with the lead was to keep playing the same way and not give them anything,” said defenceman Thomas Chabot, who scored in the second period. “Every team in this league is very talented, everybody can score. Momentum can switch really quick. We knew in the third we had to keep on doing the same thing and I think we accomplished that.

“We put it behind them a lot, then forechecked; that gave us a lot of O-zone time. As (defencemen), we did a great job on holding the blue line and gapping up in the neutral zone, forcing them to put it behind us and not come into our zone with full possession. Anytime you do that, it’s very frustrating to play against.”

The Senators were outshooting the Stars 9-5 in the first period … until Joe Pavelski scored his 20th goal of the season in a scamble around Ottawa goalie Anton Forsberg with just 10 seconds left.

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The Senators had taken a 1-0 lead 4:12 into the game when Norris tipped in a Jake Sanderson shot.

Norris got his second goal of the game as he slid a shot that trickled past Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger and barely over the goal line 5:37 into the second period.

“It’s been a little frustrating at times,” said Norris, who now has 15 goals this season. “It feels good to contribute, I want to do my part. This was definitely a step in the right direction.”

Chabot made it 3-1 at 8:56 of the second period with a wrist shot from the top of the faceoff circle to the right of Oettinger, who was yanked and replaced by Scott Wedgewood.

Shane Pinto’s power-play goal with 17 seconds left in the second period made it 4-1.

“(Playing in all three zones) is the only way you’re going to win,” said Pinto. “It’s not an easy league. To be consistent and win, you have to a play a 200-foot game.”

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ICE CHIPS

The Senators, who lost 5-4 in Dallas Dec. 15, have now won seven straight home games against the Stars, dating back to Feb. 9 of 2017. None of the current  Senators were on the roster when the streak began and only seven had played a game in the NHL (Thomas Chabot, Jakob Chychrun, Claude Giroux, Anton Forsberg, Travis Hamonic, Joonas Korpisalo and Vladimir Tarasenko) … The Senators are home Saturday against the Vegas Golden Knights, who will be without former Sens star Mark Stone, who suffered an upper-body injury earlier this week and is listed as out “week to week.” … Great job by Ottawa’s penalty-killing unit after Chabot was sent off for tripping midway through the first period. Ottawa didn’t allow Dallas a sniff for most of the kill, then  Forsberg made a nice glove save to finish it … With his assist on Norris’ second goal, Batherson recorded his 100th NHL career assist … Attendance was 16,118.

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