Familiar start and finish as Ottawa Senators fall to St. Louis Blues

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Somehow, it keeps happening, a familiar script that too often has stung the Ottawa Senators this season.

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They fall behind in the first period, then try to fight back. Mostly, it doesn’t work.

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The latest: A 5-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues on Thursday at Canadian Tire Centre.

The Senators outshot the Blues 12-7 in the first period, yet somehow, they were losing 2-0. Two goals on the first six shots.

The Senators had plenty of chances, but it was the Blues who scored first when Brandon Saad knocked in a rebound off a shot from the point with 8:06 left in the period.

The Blues made it 2-0 three minutes later when Colton Parayko took a pass from behind the net and stuffed it past Senators goalie Anton Forsberg.

Ottawa outshot St. Louis in the second period, 13-9, with each team scoring a goal.

Ottawa scored 4:34 into the period when Mathieu Joseph intercepted a pass near centre ice and feathered a pass across to Mark Kastelic for a tap in.

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The Blues got their two-goal lead back with 6:49 left in the period when they got several whacks at the puck before Jake Neighbours knocked it in.

The Senators made it 3-2 on the power play nearly two minutes into the third. After a series of stops by Joel Hofer, Dominik Kubalik shot the puck past the sprawled St. Louis goalie.

The Blues restored their two-goal edge at 5:43 when Jordan Kyrou recovered a rebound and spun around with a shot that beat Forsberg.

An empty-net goal by Neighbours with 1:28 left put it away.

NHL DEBUT FOR DEAN

In front of plenty of friends and family, Zach Dean made his NHL debut for the Blues. The former Gatineau Olympiques forward (82 goals and 106 assists in 177 QMJHL games), was acquired in a trade with Vegas (for Ivan Barbashev) in February of 2023. In his first professional season, Dean has 13 points (eight goals, five assists) with Springfield. Nine of his points came in his last 12 games. “I’m super pumped,” he said. “I know this area pretty well. I’ve been around here for the past four years, it’s like a second home to me. My girlfriend and her family are from Ottawa. It’s pretty special.”

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ICE CHIPS

Canadian Tire Centre was a sea of colours before the Pride Night game. A colourful T-shirt — dark blue, purple, white, pink, light blue, brown, black, red, orange, yellow and green — was laid out over top of each seat. The NHL bozos, of course, won’t allow more participation (pre-game Pride jerseys) from the players … I really like the DJ approach the Senators have to in-game entertainment. OSEG would be wise to do something similar for Redblacks games … Jakob Chychrun was briefly staring at an open net until Hofer twirled around and made a pad save with a bit more than seven minutes left in the first period … Hofer made a big stop off Brady Tkachuk, who one-timed a shot to the left of the goalie with 4:28 left in the first … The Senators survived a review with 6:19 left in the second and the on-ice “no-goal” call stood … Another big save for Hofer on a Batherson spinning move in tight midway through the second … Forsberg made a couple of nice saves to keep the Blues’ lead at two late in the game … Next game for the Senators is Saturday in New Jersey.

tbaines@postmedia.com
X: @TimCBaines

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