Senators recover, defeat Golden Knights in shootout

LAS VEGAS -- Jake Sanderson had a goal and two assists for the Ottawa Senators, who recovered for a 4-3 shootout win against the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Wednesday.

Shane Pinto and Drake Batherson scored, and Claude Giroux and Tim Stutzle each had two assists for the Senators (12-7-4), who are 3-1-0 on a seven-game road trip. Linus Ullmark made 32 saves and stopped all three attempts he faced in the shootout.

“We battled right through to the end,” Ullmark said. “It wasn’t pretty, but two points is two points.”

Mark Stone scored in his return after missing 16 games with an upper-body injury for the Golden Knights (10-5-8), who have lost three in a row overall (0-1-2) and each of their past seven games that have ended past regulation. Akira Schmid made 20 saves.

“We totally controlled the second and third period,” Stone said. “I’m not sure they had as much as a scoring chance, especially in the third. We have every opportunity to end the game. We had the puck on our stick and just couldn’t capitalize. It’s unfortunate, but I think for the last month we’ve been playing some really good hockey. Just can’t get over the hump.”

Pinto gave the Senators a 1-0 lead 51 seconds into the game. After tracking down his own errant pass for Giroux, Pinto scored with a sharp-angled shot from along the goal line that went underneath Schmid’s pad.

Sanderson made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 13:04, scoring with a one-timer off a pass from Giroux that went in off the post.

“Our first was great, and we dipped a little in the second but stuck with it in the third and was patient to the end,” Sanderson said. “We went into the game trying to have a shot-first mentality in the first couple of seconds on the power play if we have a look. It worked out.”

Brett Howden cut it to 2-1 at 16:52. Mitch Marner took a stretch pass from Shea Theodore at the blue line and dropped the puck for a charging Howden, who sped around Nick Jensen before tucking the puck past the left pad of Ullmark.

“I liked the line [of Howden, Stone and Marner],” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “'Stoney’s' really good at drawing people to him, and 'Howie’ is good through the middle, so they were able to find some weak-side ice to Marner a couple of times. ‘Howie’ obviously got behind, scored a goal in a way he typically does with speed, driving wide, and making a play tight with the goalie.”

Batherson pushed it to 3-1 at 19:43. He scored with a one-timer from the slot off a pass from Stutzle, who made the play as he was about to skate around the net on a rush.

“We talked about playing 60 minutes,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “We got a little tired. I’ve got to do a little better job of getting our fourth line out, getting them a few more minutes to save some energy later in games.”

Jack Eichel got the Golden Knights to within 3-2 at 2:09 of the second period. Ullmark made the initial save on Braeden Bowman’s shot from in front, but Ivan Barbashev tracked down the rebound in the right circle and passed down to Eichel, who tucked the puck in at the post before Ullmark could get back in position.

Stone tied it 3-3 with a power-play goal at 6:40 of the third period. He whiffed on a pass for Pavel Dorofeyev, but Nikolas Matinpalo accidentally swept the puck into the net off the skate of Stutzle in front.

“Got a really lucky bounce, but you take those and run,” Stone said. “We had some chances. It’ll come. It’ll get better.”

NOTES: Bowman extended his point streak to five games (three goals, three assists). He is the first undrafted rookie to have a streak that long since Taro Hirose in 2018-19 (five games for the Detroit Red Wings).