Blue Jackets drop one in Ottawa

OTTAWA -- Brady Tkachuk scored a hat trick to help the Ottawa Senators win their season-high fourth straight game, 6-3 against the Columbus Blue Jackets at Canadian Tire Centre on Tuesday.

“You always kind of dream about that when you’re a kid,” Tkachuk, Ottawa's captain, said about watching the hats rain down from the stands after completing his second NHL hat trick. “For it to happen, it’s pretty special, but I wouldn’t be able to do it without a lot of great players on the ice and just trying to find open ice for guys. I was more happy with the outcome and how we battled until the very end.”

Claude Giroux had a goal and two assists for the Senators (22-25-2), who are 8-2-2 in their past 12 games. Anton Forsberg made 37 saves in his return after missing 11 games because of a groin injury he sustained on Jan. 11. 

“I think we’re playing with a lot more confidence,” Ottawa forward Ridly Greig said. “We’re not so fragile, I think. It’s really coming together and stringing along pretty good for us.”

The Senators played a man short, dressing 12 forwards and five defensemen. Defenseman Artem Zub did not play with a lower-body injury, and Ottawa was unable to recall a replacement because of NHL salary cap constraints.

“I thought they did a good job,” Ottawa coach Jacques Martin said of his defensemen. “It wasn’t easy. Like, with five, I mean, some guys played a lot of minutes. [Thomas] Chabot (28:34) and [Jakob] Chychrun (25:25) played a lot of minutes, but I thought that they really battled and I thought that our forwards helped out, as well.”

Dmitri Voronkov, Boone Jenner and Jack Roslovic scored, and Daniil Tarasov made 24 saves in his first game since Jan. 28 for the Blue Jackets (16-26-10), who have lost four of their past five (1-3-1).

“That’s a team that is coming together,” Columbus coach Pascal Vincent said of Ottawa. “They changed their defensive structure, and the first seven or eight minutes we were managing the puck, making their D turn, they had five D tonight, and that was part of our plan, to make them skate. So, we did it right and it was successful. And then we changed. And that’s learning to play on the road.”

The Blue Jackets were 0-for-4 on the power play. The Senators were 2-for-5.

“It used to be a big momentum switch for us,” Vincent said of Columbus' penalty kill. “We just don’t get that momentum anymore. Teams will score on the power play. We can’t live in the past like we always say. But we don’t have that momentum boost like we used to in the past. That’s a true fact.”

The Blue Jackets took a 1-0 lead at 7:11 of the first period. Kent Johnson’s centering pass ricocheted off Voronkov’s stick before hitting Senators defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker’s skate and deflecting in.

“We played a good first five, six minutes,” said Jenner, the Blue Jackets' captain. “Kind of played into their hands after that, giving them the puck. … We’ve just got to get behind them. We did that after, but we spotted them a couple goals there on our mistakes and it gave them momentum.”

Tkachuk tied it 1-1 on the power play at 9:48, finishing a tic-tac-toe passing play at the side of the net.

“Right off the bat, I thought he had a real good game,” Martin said of Tkachuk. “I mean, two of the goals on the power play, but he’s really very effective in front of the net. He’s played really good lately. I think when you look at the number of goals he’s scored (25), he’s leading our team in goals, so I think it’s encouraging.”

Tkachuk scored 48 seconds later by batting his own rebound out of the air on a 2-on-1 rush to make it 2-1.

“It’s awesome,” Chabot said of Tkachuk’s hat trick. “He’s been the rock here for us, and obviously he’s always the one that needs to face every noise, whether [it’s] good or bad. To see him have a great game like that and carry the load for us, I mean, every guy is happy for him.”

Giroux pushed it to 3-1 at 14:46, finishing a short-handed 2-on-1 rush with a wrist shot to the top right corner.

The Senators thought they’d extended the lead to 4-1 at 15:09 when Mathieu Joseph scored on another rush, but the goal was overturned after the Blue Jackets challenged for goaltender interference.

Greig did make it 4-1 at 5:37 of the second period, tipping in Vladimir Tarasenko's point shot.

Jenner cut it to 4-2 at 10:41 when he beat Forsberg glove side with a wrist shot from the top of the left face-off circle.

Roslovic then pulled Columbus to within 4-3 at 13:54, scoring with a wrist shot from a sharp angle.

“He works hard. He always thinks we’re in the game,” Columbus forward Johnny Gaudreau said of Jenner. “He’s our leader, so guys follow him and he does a great job with that. Again, like tonight, he scored a big goal, got us within two, and Jack scored a big goal and got us within one. We were right there, just fell short.

“I thought we played well the first six minutes (of the first period) and then [had] a couple of bad turnovers and they found a lead. I thought we fought back in the second and third, though.”

Tkachuk finished the hat trick with a power-play goal to make it 5-3 at 16:48. He scored from the top of the crease off a pass from Giroux.

Erik Brannstrom scored into an empty net for the 6-3 final at 19:52 of the third period.

“Everyone stepped up,” Tkachuk said. “We were a man short from the start, so we needed everyone to step up. And of course ‘Forsy’ played awesome for us again tonight.”

NOTES: Voronkov has 13 goals this season. He trails only Connor Bedard of the Chicago Blackhawks (15) and Marco Rossi of the Minnesota Wild (14) for the lead among NHL rookies. … Tkachuk, 24, reached 319 NHL points and passed Alexei Yashin (317) for the third-most before the age of 25 in Senators history. The only others with more are Marian Hossa (353) and Jason Spezza (345). Tkachuk has 150 goals and 169 assists in 408 games.