Senators fall to Buffalo Sabres, lose fifth straight

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As the Ottawa Senators near the midway point of what’s so far been a less-than-overwhelming season, they need to find positives, things they can build on, things that result in them winning hockey games.

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Things like the third-period spark they showed Thursday night in Buffalo. Trailing 4-1 going into the third, the Senators fought back, led by a couple of goals by Claude Giroux, whose 36th birthday is Friday.

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It wasn’t enough as the Sabres held on for a 5-3 win. It was Ottawa’s fifth straight loss, all on the road.

“We turned it on in the third, but we have to do it the whole game,” Giroux said. “It sucks right now. I don’t know if it’s confidence. I don’t think it’s lack of effort.”

“I like the way we came back,” Senators coach Jacques Martin said. “We made some mistakes that cost us goals, but I like the way we rallied in the third period. You play the right way, you keep pressure on the defence, you’re going to get some turnovers and get some scoring opportunities from it.”

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Asked what he said to his team after the second period, Martin said: “We talked about leaving all we have on the ice, giving ourselves a chance. You can’t feel sorry for yourself.”

With the loss, the Eastern Conference’s 16th-place team (with five games in hand) fell 12 points behind the 14th-place Sabres.

“It was an important game for us to end the trip, it hasn’t been a very successful one,” defenceman Travis Hamonic said. “It was an important third period, it’s frustrating we fell short.”

After a rough stretch, it was a strong finish to the game for Ottawa’s Joonas Korpisalo, who replaced Anton Forsberg late in the first period when the starting goalie went down with what was later diagnosed as a “right groin injury.”

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“It’s not an easy spot for Korpi to jump in,” Hamonic said. “I don’t think we did a good enough job right away when Korpi came in. He made some really big saves in the second and a couple of big ones in the third to keep it within reach for us.”

Two seconds after Mark Kastelic had returned to the ice following a tripping penalty, the Sabres got a goal from J.J. Peterka, at 9:14 of the opening period.

The Senators tied it with 4:54 left in the first period. A wrist shot from near the blueline by Vladimir Tarasenko got past goalie Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen, with Kastelic providing a screen.

Forsberg was helped off the ice after he kicked out his pad to make save on a one-handed shot by Zach Benson with a bit less than four minutes left in the first.

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The first shot against Korpisalo, by Tage Thompson, beat the goalie, glove side, with 2:32 left in the first.

With Dominik Kubalik serving a tripping penalty, Thompson ripped a wrist shot past Korpisalo from the faceoff dot to the goalie’s right with 28 seconds left in the first period.

A huge breakdown by the Senators near centre ice and a giveaway by Jakob Chychrun allowed Buffalo to break in with a nice passing play resulting in a tap in by Peyton Krebs 4:52 into the second period.

Giroux scored 43 seconds into the third period after a Buffalo giveaway deep in its own end. Giroux scored again with 8:45 left, with a slapshot from the top of the faceoff circle.

An empty-net goal by Buffalo’s Dylan Cozens, with three seconds left, finished it.

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THIS ‘N’ THAT: It was an interesting special teams matchup: Going into the game, the Sabres had the NHL’s 28th-ranked power play, while the Senators had the 31st-ranked penalty kill (ahead of only San Jose) … The Senators went 0-for-4 on the power play … Tarasenko’s goal gave him 600 career NHL points … The Senators were missing top-line centre Josh Norris, who fell awkwardly, on his head, to the ice Tuesday in Calgary. Norris was replaced by Ridly Greig as the team’s top-line centre … In the two previous games against the Sabres this season, the Senators lost 6-4, then 5-1 New Year’s Eve … Up next is a Saturday home game against the San Jose Sharks, the NHL’s worst team.

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