Senators hope to keep season alive in Game 4 without injured Sanderson 

OTTAWA --  It's a case of déjà vu for the Ottawa Senators.

For the second straight spring, the Senators find themselves staring at a 3-0 first-round series deficit. Except this time around, the mountain may be even steeper to climb.

Last year, Ottawa managed to push the Toronto Maple Leafs to six games after back-to-back wins in Games 4 and 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round at before ultimately getting eliminated in Game 6.

Now, the Senators are on the brink of elimination against the Carolina Hurricanes, heading into Game 4 at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday (3 p.m. ET; TVAS, SN, TBS, truTV, FDSNSO, HBO MAX), and will try to extend the series without two of their top defensemen in Artem Zub and Jake Sanderson.

In Game 3, a 2-1 loss, Sanderson was hit in the head by Hurricanes forward Taylor Hall at 4:24 of the second period. Sanderson played two shifts after the hit, but eventually left the game in the second period. Hall was assessed a minor penalty for an illegal check on the play.

Sanderson had two assists and was plus-2 in a game-high 43:06 in Ottawa's 3-2 loss in double overtime in Game 2 on Monday. He led Senators defensemen with 54 points (14 goals, 40 assists) in 67 regular-season games.

On Friday, Senators coach Travis Green said that Sanderson would miss Game 4 with a concussion.

"I think we faced a lot of adversity this season," Ottawa defenseman Jordan Spence said Friday. "Sandy's such a big role in our team. He logs in a lot of minutes. He's such a special player. And losing a guy like him, it [stinks], but we can't dwell on it. We have to focus on the next game. It's next man up mentality, like we did the second half of the season."

Zub sustained an undisclosed injury early in the second period of a 2-0 loss in Game 1 on Saturday after checking Hurricanes forward Seth Jarvis. Zub, who had 30 points (five goals, 25 assists) and averaged 20:48 of ice time in 81 regular-season games, has not played since. He was also on the top defense pair with Sanderson.

Since the Olympic break, the Senators have cycled through 12 different defensemen.

"We've been dealing with that for a while," Green said. "Wasn't a big part of our talk today, not something new to our group for the last little while. Our focus is on how we can play better and win the next game." 

Veteran Claude Giroux, who was part of the Philadelphia Flyers' historic 2010 comeback from a 3-0 deficit against the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference Second Round said the key is for the Senators to find their game that carried them into a berth into the postseason as the second wild card from the East.

"I think we're not playing at our best abilities right now," Giroux said. "We know we can play better, and there's not a lot of room out there for both teams. You know they're a good team."

Spence added that the Senators lacked energy at points in Game 3.

"I think last game, at times during the game, we were, we were down, down on ourselves, kind of losing energy a little bit," Spence said.

In Game 3, Carolina coach Rod Brind'Amour said a key moment came when his team killed off a 5-on-3 penalty that the Senators had for 1:28.

Afterward, Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk said the power play cost them the game. The Senators are 0-for-12 in the series.

"They've only scored one on the power play," Spence said. "We've done a really good job on the penalty kill. You know, it was unfortunate last game, not capitalizing on the 5-on-3 and everything. But, you know, we can't, we can't let that sink in during the game and kind of lose energy and lose momentum."

"I think the power play has cost us momentum and frustrations," Green said. "It's leaked into our 5-on-5 game."

If the Senators can find their power play and scoring touch after managing just three goals through three games, they will have strong backing from Linus Ullmark, who has posted a .933 save percentage in the series.

"He's playing amazing," Spence said. "You can really tell by the three games that we played right now, 
we're not capitalizing on our chances."

Despite the frustration, the message was simple moving forward from Giroux.

"For us, it's Game 4. That's all we're worried about."