Senators’ winning streak halted as club drops decision to Ducks

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DUCKS 5, SENATORS 1

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This was ugly and embarrassing.

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The Ottawa Senators couldn’t have picked a worse way to have one of their worst games of the season as the club dropped a disgraceful 5-1 decision to the Anaheim Ducks in front of 16,297 at the Canadian Tire Centre.

Only Claude Giroux was able to score as the Senators season-high winning streak was halted at four games. Outworked, outplayed and beaten in every aspect of the game, especially goaltending.

“It’s frustrating to have this effort tonight,” Giroux said. “We’ve been playing some really good hockey lately. It happens sometime during the season where you have a flat game like this. The position we’re in right now, it’s just unacceptable.

“We were playing some good hockey, playing the right way, responsible winning our battles and we just didn’t do that tonight. Pretty much everybody was pretty bad tonight.”

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Goaltender Joonas Korpisalo came into this game with three straight wins in his last three starts. He stopped 72-of-77 shots in those victories. He came into this one with a 3-1-1 lifetime record against the Ducks with a 2.58 goals-against average and a .901 save-percentage.

The issue was Korpisalo wasn’t good and the Senators were worse in front of him. But it’s the 13th time in 35 appearances this season that Korpisalo has given up more than four goals. Just terrible.

Ducks’ goalie John Gibson left the game after stopping all 15 shots. He wasn’t happy after getting run over Ridly Greig late in the second, but finished the period and wasn’t even on the bench for the third. That meant Luke Dostal finished the game.

Carp native Mason McTavish scored his second of the game at 2:18 of the third to give the club a 4-0 lead.

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“It just wasn’t our best game by any means,” said defenceman Jakob Chychrun. “We started slow and they were just outworking us all over the ice. It was just a tough one to swallow.”

Coach Jacques Martin wasn’t impressed.

“I just didn’t think our compete level was high enough,” Martin said. “Give them credit, they outworked us, they were on the puck. We’ve just got to regroup. It’s not the opposition, we’ve got to be better.”

OFF THE GLASS

McTavish, who’s father Dale is a pro scout for the Senators, scored with 1:01 left in the second to give the Ducks a commanding 3-0 lead. “They’re playing a simple game and they’re outworking us,” winger Mathieu Joseph told TSN after the second. That was the Ducks’ second goal in a span of 1:34. Anaheim was coming off a 5-0 loss to Montreal on Tuesday, the Senators should have been ready … The Ducks pulled out to a 2-0 lead on the power play at 17:25 of the second thanks to Frank Vatrano’s 23rd of the season. He one-timed a pass by Korpisalo from the circle and he had no chance. The Senators had killed off 11 straight man-advantage opportunities in their last five games before he scored … Korpisalo did a good job making a stop on Anaheim’s Max Jones as he tried to go through his own legs to get a shot off late in the second … The Ducks went more than 14 minutes without a shot. They didn’t register their first shot until their was 9:14 left in the second … Gibson was down, but stayed in the game five minutes into the second after getting run over by Drake Batherson and teammate Ilya Libushkin. … Erik Brannstrom got stuck on the ice early in the second and had a shift that stretched two minutes and 18 seconds.

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OVER THE BOARDS

Not a good start for the Senators. They weren’t winning the battles, they were back on their heels and had to be more physical. Gibson made a good stop on Shane Pinto with five minutes left in the first and that was the best chance the club had … The club had two power plays in the first, produced three shots and didn’t have many chances. Trailing 1-0 after 20 minutes, the Senators outshot the Ducks 8-7, but something was missing. “I don’t think we played a great period,” defenceman Thomas Chabot told TSN after the first. “We haven’t been paying attention to our details.” … After the Senators failed to score on their first power play, former 67’s D Pavel Mintyukov opened the scoring at 9:19 of the first for the Ducks. He was able to pick up a rebound and beat Korpisalo five-hole… Classy move by Anaheim coach Greg Cronin to have Bo Groulx take the opening faceoff against Giroux. He played for coach Benoit Groulx with the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Gatineau Olympiques and Bo was a toddler running around the dressing room.

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THE FINAL BUZZER

While Martin hasn’t ruled out defenceman Artem Zub suiting up Saturday in Chicago, the club recalled Maxence Guenette from its American Hockey League affiliate in Belleville Thursday.

After playing a blueliner short Tuesday, the Senators were allowed to make a recall under the roster emergency exception. The club had only $25,000 in cap space and after a playing minus one player they were allowed to use that to recall a player that makes less than $875,000 U.S.

He suited up with Belleville on Wednesday at home and got the nod from associate GM Ryan Bowness after the game to make the trip to Ottawa. This is the first time Guenette has been recalled this season, but he was an AHL all-star and had an excellent training camp.

“I’m ready to go and I’m just excited to be here,” said Guenette, who was paired with Brannstrom.

He has four goals and 23 points in 41 games with Belleville.

“It’s been pretty good for me,” Guenette said. “I’ve been a bit more offensive in the first and I got better defensively. I’ve tried to be more mature and more assertive on the ice.”

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

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