Shane Pinto had a 26th birthday to remember, scoring three points — including the overtime winner — in a 4-3 victory over the Colorado Avalanche.
“Yeah, it’s pretty cool, I think obviously, it’s just a cool day. Can’t take these moments for granted, it’s obviously really cool, and yeah, just happy we got a win, and it was pretty cool to end it,” said Pinto after the game.
With the three-point effort, Pinto joined Alexei Yashin (four points, Nov. 5, 1993), Magnus Arvedson (three points, Nov. 25, 1999), Dany Heatley (three points, Jan. 21, 2006), and Matt Duchene (Jan. 16, 2019) as Senators to score three or more points on their birthdays. All five players did it in their 20s — and all of them did it in either November or January.
Pinto’s first goal came after he blocked a shot and stick-lifted Brent Burns early in the first period. Late in the third, he picked up an assist on Drake Batherson’s game-tying goal. And then two minutes into overtime, he picked off a pass from Parker Kelly and sent it past Scott Wedgewood to win the game.
“I mean, it’s hard to tell, but yeah, I think sometimes we would go down in games and maybe get a little, say, discouraged,” said Pinto about how Senators teams in the past might have fared after facing a late 3-2 deficit.
“I think this year we’ve been resilient, you know, a few times now. And yeah, finding ways to get goals at the late stages there, and finding a way to get to overtime, and thankfully we won.”
Tim Stützle said after the game that the pair dined together on Wednesday night, and that he suggested a specific dish for Pinto which may have contributed to his performance on Thursday.
“Yeah, I told him to start eating fish, and he was he was great tonight, so he had a lot of energy. Obviously, a great read by him in overtime, and he's a special player. He's going to make those plays and puts it in the back of the net.”
