Ottawa Senators let one get away to Colorado Avalanche

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Avalanche 7, Senators 4

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It’d be difficult to separate and catalogue the Ottawa Senators’ 24 setbacks into “good” and “bad” losses.

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Each time the Senators fail, it has to hurt in its own piercing way.

Each defeat is another step away from being in a playoff position; each is a step closer to a wasted season.

The latest: A 7-4 loss to the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday at Canadian Tire Centre. And, again, it was a blown lead, a series of mistakes, giveaways and a couple of goals that should have been prevented that sealed the Senators’ fate.

“We need better effort from some people, we need more determination,” said Senators head coach Jacques Martin. “I look at (Colorado’s) fourth goal, it’s a lack of determination and a lack of commitment (from us). When you’re ahead and you’re protecting the lead, you need to have some urgency in your D.

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“For 40 minutes, I thought we were pretty good. We made a couple of mistakes that cost us goals.”

Martin said it’s tough to evaluate Senators goalie Mads Sogaard, who stopped 27 of 33 shots.

“It was a high-tempo game, back and forth,” said Sogaard, who was making his first start of the season. “Six goals on my end is too many. It’s about stopping the puck and I didn’t do enough of that. There were some good parts to my game and there are things I need to work on.

“I demand a lot of myself, I expect good things because of how hard I work, because of the hours I put into it. I want to do well. (Wednesday) is a new day. It’s done, I can’t do anything about this. I’ll be working my hardest to figure it out.”

The coach pointed to the defence in front of Sogaard needing to be better.

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“One area that gets us in trouble is we back into the zone too much on defence,” said Martin. “We’ve worked a couple of days in practice on our gap. We have to stand up. You can’t let players walk into the slot area and take a shot. We have to force the opponents to make a play earlier, at the blue line.”

At one point, the Senators had a two-goal lead and looked like they might knock off Colorado, the third-best team in the NHL’s Western Conference.

Sounds familiar, right?

“It’s never really a 60-minute effort,” said Senators captain Brady Tkachuk. “We let (our foot) off the gas. As a group, you can’t let in seven. You’re never going to win. Everybody in here hates losing. We need to figure out a way to put some wins together and keep going.”

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The Senators got a big night from centre Ridly Greig, thriving after his promotion to the team’s top line alongside Tkachuk and Claude Giroux. Greig, who was moved up after Josh Norris was injured tumbling head first to the ice a week ago, scored twice.

Both teams had good chances in the first period, with the Senators outshooting the Avalanche 15-10.

Greig steered a tap in just wide of an open net after a pass from Giroux nine minutes in.

A few seconds later, Sogaard was knocked to the ice by a high stick from Colorado’s Ross Colton, who was trying to swat the puck into the net. The Avalanche forward got a double minor, while Jake Sanderson was penalized for roughing. It took the Senators six seconds to score on the power play, when Drake Batherson, on a second chance, wristed a shot past Avs goalie Justus Annunen, playing in his first game of the season.

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The lead didn’t last long. Colorado got a goal from Mikko Rantanen 38 seconds later.

Tkachuk took a long pass to break in alone, but shot into Annunen’s pads.

The Senators made it 2-1 1:21 into the second period when Greig barrelled into the net to knock in a puck that was sitting just in front of the goal line.

Again, the Avalanche responded quickly. A Jason Polin wrist shot from the faceoff dot to the left of Sogaard found the net at 2:27. It was Polin’s first NHL goal.

Greig scored his second of the game at 7:21 on a wrist shot, after being set up by Tkachuk.

Ottawa took a two-goal lead with 8:56 left in the period on a nice effort by Sanderson, who took the puck to the net and stuffed it past Annunen.

Colorado cut it to 4-3 with 3:42 left in the second on a goal by Rantanen, his 24th of the season.

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The Avalanche tied it 4:04 into the third period when Miles Wood was allowed to cut up the middle and shovel the puck into the Ottawa net.

With an Ottawa penalty expiring, Colorado took the lead on a shot from the point by Sam Malinski at 8:14.

It was 6-4 when Logan O’Connor scored with 7:36 left.

The Senators pulled their goalie with more than five minutes left. The Avalanche made it 7-4 when Devon Toews slid a puck the length of the ice with 4:44 left.

ICE CHIPS: A Colorado goal with 4:45 left in the second period, challenged by Ottawa, was wiped out when it was ruled to be offside … Ottawa’s Mathieu Joseph got a first-period penalty for embellishment after he fell to the ice. Colorado’s Joel Kiviranta was sent to the box for interference on the same play …  Joseph was stopped on a second-period breakaway, with the Senators short-handed. Parker Kelly also had a good chance a few seconds later … The Senators continue a four-game homestand against Montreal Thursday. It’ll be the first of three meetings between the teams this season … It was Tim Stutzle’s 22nd birthday Monday … The last time the Sens and Avs played – Dec. 21 in Colorado – Nathan MacKinnon scored four times to lead the Avalanche to a 6-4 win … With an open net, Kelly hit the goalpost with six minutes left … Attendance was announced as 16,242. Traffic getting to the arena was particularly bad.

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