Senators break out of early deficit, score five unanswered in win over Capitals

No one can blame Shane Pinto for having some fun these days.

The Ottawa Senators centre's third goal in as many games proved to be the winner in a 5-2 win over the Washington Capitals Thursday night. Pinto's goal was the third of five unanswered goals after the Senators were down 2-0 after the first period. 

He was held to just five games last season due to a shoulder injury, but is more than making up for lost time with a strong start to the season. During his many months of rehab last season, Pinto admitted he pictured himself being able to make a difference.

“Just to play a game, that’s all I wanted to do,” said Pinto. “But definitely to help the team win, that’s what I wanted to do coming in to this year, but I definitely visualized this.”

Drake Batherson scored a pair of power-play goals, while Tyler Motte and Alex DeBrincat added empty-net goals for their first with the Senators. Anton Forsberg stopped 22 shots in the win.

It's the first time since January 2017 that Ottawa (2-2-0) defeated Washington at home.

T.J. Oshie and Anthony Mantha scored for Washington (2-3-0) in the opening period on the power play. Darcy Kuemper made 39 saves.

“I feel like the first 20 [minutes] we were chipping pucks with speed, going on the forecheck and turning pucks over,” said Oshie. “By the end of the first, I thought we’d backed them up a little bit. I believe we had some entries just by carrying the puck. 

"We were shooting, we were supporting each other, and that kind of just went away. I don’t know, maybe they tired us out or we got a little overconfident with the puck, or whatever it was.”

Ottawa took its first lead of the game 5:53 into the third as Tyler Motte found a trailing Pinto who scored on a wrist shot from the slot to put the Senators up 3-2.

Moments later, Forsberg made a huge save on Marcus Johansson to preserve the lead.

“I just tried to get something over there and I was kind of lucky it hit my glove,” said Forsberg. “I mean obviously that’s one of the saves you want to make as a kid so it’s always nice.”

While they didn’t make it to the scoresheet, the trio of Mark Kastelic, Austin Watson and Parker Kelly were instrumental to the Senators victory.

All three were physical and rattled the Capitals early in the second period and generated the energy the Senators lacked in the first period.

“Those couple shifts there I was like, “Oh my God what a hit, oh my God what another hit,” said Batherson. “There was like six in a row there, so it was great. We love that. All three of those guys bring a ton of energy and got the boys going.”

Trailing 2-0 after a lacklustre first period, the Senators were able to square things up on a pair of power-play goals of their own.

Batherson scored his second goal in as many games off a pass from Brady Tkachuk 5:48 into the second period.

Less than two minutes later, Thomas Chabot fired a shot from the point and Batherson was able to jump on the rebound in front to beat Kuemper for his second of the night.

“It's a different team here and there's more maturity, and they're able to be more composed and they're able to turn it up another gear,” said Senators head coach D.J. Smith. “Clearly we weren't at the gear we wanted to be, but give that dressing room credit. Those guys, you know what they did is got themselves ready for the second and third.”

The Capitals struggled to generate much momentum in the second and were outshot 15-5 by the Senators.

“We shot ourselves in the foot too many times with the puck,” said Capitals coach Peter Laviolette. “The first period, we did exactly what we wanted to do. We put the puck north, we put it behind them, we’re in the offensive zone, we’re delivering pucks at the net. The second period and third period, we played east-west hockey, we didn’t deliver any pucks. Not good enough.”

Washington got going early scoring a pair of power-play goals to take the lead in the first.

The Capitals had a two-man advantage for 72 seconds and Johansson fed Oshie to open the scoring midway through the period.

Mantha scored 24 seconds later with a shot from the point to go up 2-0.

INTERESTING FACT OR STAT

Anton Forsberg’s first career win came against Washington when he played for Columbus in 2016. Forsberg replaced Curtis McElhinney who had been injured in OT. According to Elias Sports Bureau, he’s the first goalie to earn his first NHL win in a game he entered after regulation.

NOTES: The Senators have not won at home vs. Washington since Jan. 2017. Washington is 8-1-1 in their last 10 visits to Canadian Tire Centre. Former Senator Connor Brown missed a chance to play his former teammates Thursday. He was placed on the long-term injury list after suffering a leg injury Monday. The Capitals were also without centre Evgeny Kuznetsov, who is serving a one-game suspension. The Senators unveiled a banner in former owner Eugene Melnyk’s honour prior to the game. Melnyk died in March earlier this year. His daughters Anna and Olivia were on hand for a ceremonial puck drop.