Tkachuk scores two goals, Senators defeat Hurricanes

Brady Tkachuk scored two goals for the Ottawa Senators in a 4-3 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa on Tuesday.

It ended a 15-game goal drought for Tkachuk, who had not scored since Dec. 14 against the Florida Panthers.
"I thought our group did a good job in the first two periods, and in the third period they came back with a huge push there," Tkachuk said. "A couple of mistakes that we made that we'll clean up, but we're still happy with the outcome and those are two huge points against a Stanley Cup contender."
Anton Forsberg made 42 saves for the Senators (16-22-4), who are 5-2-2 in their past nine games. Matt Murray made 32 saves in a 4-1 win against the New Jersey Devils on Monday.
"[Our goalies] have been our best players throughout this stretch of hockey and they keep us in games every night," Tkachuk said. "They make those timely saves and, like I said, they've been our best players."

Andrei Svechnikov scored for the Hurricanes (31-10-3), who were 0-for-4 on the power play and had their five-game point streak end after a 4-3 overtime loss at the Toronto Maple Leafs on Monday. Antti Raanta made 27 saves.
"We didn't get too many breaks today," Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said. "Our power play was actually really good. We must've had five or six what I thought were tap-ins, and they just didn't happen to go (in). We'll move on."
Tkachuk gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead at 1:11 of the first period when his centering pass went in off Carolina center Sebastian Aho.
Alex Formenton one-timed a pass from Connor Brown to make it 2-0 at 8:27. It was Formenton's 10th goal of the season and his fourth in three games against the Hurricanes.
Tkachuk scored on
Tim Stutzle's
rebound at the edge of the crease 40 seconds into the second period for a power-play goal to make it 3-0.

Chris Tierney give the Senators a 4-0 lead at 2:54.after he intercepted a pass from Svechnikov, skated into the slot and scored with a wrist shot.
"If we want to be the best team in the world, right from the puck drop you've got to have it and you've got to play the whole 60 (minutes)," Hurricanes defenseman Brendan Smith said. "You can't spot them four (goals) and expect to win the game. But we talked about it after the second; come in here and do the right things, have good habits and get ourselves prepared for the next game and not let bad habits creep in.
"I know it's a cliche, everyone talks about playing 60 (minutes), but that's literally what you have to do to be the best team in the world."
Svechnikov scored on a rebound to cut it to 4-1 at 2:07 of the third period, and Smith made it 4-2 with a slap shot from the point at 13:54.
Vincent Trocheck scored with 1:12 remaining for the 4-3 final.
The Hurricanes outshot the Senators 16-7 in the third period.
"It almost looked like we didn't expect to be up 4-0 and we didn't know what to do with it," Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. "We were kind of waiting for their push. We've got to learn to just keep doing what we're doing, don't play the score. And then I thought we had a couple of really good pushes in the third period, and then they scored and froze us and they got the goalie out, but we found a way."
NOTES:Stutzle and Senators defenseman Nick Holden each had two assists. … Aho nearly scored with a slap shot at the end of the first period, but video review determined the puck was not across the goal line before time expired. … Tkachuk became the fourth player in Senators history to score in the first 1:15 in each of the first two periods, joining Jason Spezza (Nov. 26, 2005), Jody Hull (March 25, 1993) and Mike Peluso (Nov. 25, 1992). … Hurricanes defensemen Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei were each minus-3,