Third-period lapse costly for Ottawa Senators again in loss to Bruins

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BRUINS 6, SENATORS 2

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It’s tough to win in the National Hockey League when you allow six goals.

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It’s tougher to take when those six goals come on 26 shots.

The Ottawa Senators hung tough with the Bruins for much of Tuesday night’s game in Boston.

But Boston, propelled by a David Pastrnak hat trick, made the most of its chances in a 6-2 win.

It was another case of too many passengers and not enough performers for the Senators.

“We need better performances out of certain players,” Senators coach Jacques Martin told TSN 1200’s Gord Wilson after the game. “We got a good effort from certain guys, but other players have to be better.”

One of those players needing to be better has to be goalie Joonas Korpisalo.

If you’re looking to figure out why the season has gone sideways for the Senators, you don’t need to look much further than the save percentage by the team’s goalies. Their .883 percentage going into Tuesday’s game was worst in the NHL. By comparison, the Bruins had the second-best save percentage (.913).

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The Senators, who gave up four unanswered goals in the third period of a 7-2 home-ice loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday, gave up three Tuesday, breaking open what had been a 3-2 game.

“When they got that fourth goal, it seemed to take the life out of us,” said Martin.

“It was pretty similar to the game on Sunday, we played well for two periods,” said Senators centre Shane Pinto, who scored Ottawa’s first goal. “I don’t know what happened in the third, it got away from us.”

“It’s the same kind of story,” said Senators defenceman Thomas Chabot. “We play good and have momentum – we finish the second period by scoring a big goal. That should turn momentum in our favour. We came out in the third and didn’t do it. That’s the story, simple as that.”

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Ottawa led Boston 4-1 in shots on goal more than eight minutes into the game. But, the Senators still fell behind 2-0.

At 8:27, Pastrnak tipped a shot from the point past Korpisalo.

A bit less than three minutes later, Pastrnak struck again, breaking in alone and elevating a backhand shot past Korpisalo.

Pinto cut it to 2-1 with a power-play snapshot that snuck past Boston goalie Linus Ullmark.

Boston made it 3-1 with 1:09 left in the second period as Justin Brazeau, on the power play, knocked in a rebound.

But, with just three seconds left in the period, Brady Tkachuk knocked in his own rebound and it was 3-2.

Pastrnak scored his third goal of the game — and the hats came flying onto the ice — 4:43 into the third period, with the Bruins’ relentless forechecking paying off.

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It didn’t take long — 25 seconds after its fourth goal — for Boston to score goal No. 5. Jesper Boqvist raced around Jakob Chychrun and beat Korpisalo.

Brazeau scored his second of the game on the power play with 1:54 left.

THEY SAID IT: Following the morning skate, Martin talked about how tough it is to play the Bruins. “When you play a team like Boston, the work ethic is a key. This is a team that lost two outstanding centres (Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci) and hasn’t missed a beat because of its culture. They’ve got strong goaltending, a good defence and the forwards work really hard.” … Said Tkachuk: “If you aren’t ready to play against these guys, it’s going to be a long night. It’s a team we want to be like down the road; they do it right every shift.”

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THE FIXERS: The rink handymen were busy. A repair guy in coveralls had to be summoned to fix one of the doors at the Senators bench early in the first period. A couple of minutes later, a pane of glass to the side of the Bruins net had to be replaced. Oh, and late in the third period, Mr. Coveralls was back at work on that pane of glass.

ICE CHIPS: Tkachuk was rocked with a big hit away from the play midway through the second period. Looked like there should have been a penalty called … The Bruins appeared to be upset at an interference penalty to Andrew Peeke that led to Ottawa’s first goal. Not sure why; Peeke clearly took down Mark Kastelic, who tumbled hard into the boards … Ottawa had a brief two-man advantage early in the second period. Lots of shots, no goals … Some sort of bear fur coat was tossed onto the ice when Pastrnak finished his hat trick? And did Pastrnak put it aside on the Boston bench to keep and take home? Asked about it after the game, he said: “I put it on and took a picture. It was cozy.” … It was Pastrnak’s 17th career hat trick (second on an all-time Bruins list (Phil Esposito is the leader with 26).

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