"I felt like myself," McKenna said following a 42-save effort against Boston. "I had a lot of good work leading up to this so I was ready for it."
The Bruins ultimately came away with a 2-1 decision in overtime but McKenna's performance was all anyone could talk about after the game.
"He stood on his head for us," said Zack Smith following Sunday's contest. "It's good to know that when we make mistakes, he's got our back."
Along with the adulation from his teammates and first star honours in a losing effort, McKenna's play caught the attention of Sens fans online and one of them found a unique and selfless way to pay tribute to the Sens goaltender.
"In honour of @MikeMcKenna56 's wicked game I'm donating $66 to the @OttawaFoodBank," said Twitter user
@axematty
. "Great game Mike! #GoSensGo"
McKenna got the notification on his phone later that night and admitted to being floored by the gesture and knew that he wanted to respond in kind.
"When I saw the he had donated, it seemed like a no-brainer that I want to be a part of this too," he said. "Then you see it's for the Ottawa Food Bank which is as good as a cause as you can find especially around the holiday season. After that, two or three more people also chose to make donations and it snowballed a bit."
"It was really cool and kudos to our fan that started the ball rolling on it."
This latest act of charity is one of many from the Senators this season. The organization and team
stepped up in a big way
after a tornado decimated parts of the city this fall by raising money, collecting food donations and making visits to the affected areas. McKenna, who was with the Belleville Senators at the time, said he took note of how much time and effort the players were putting into the community and saw this as a small opportunity to make an impact of his own.
"You take your lead from your teammates and we have a lot of guys on our team that are active in the community," shared McKenna. "Being new to the team, it's nice to be able to find a way to do that as well. Social media can be a great way for stuff like that to take life and I'm fortunate to be able to have the ability to help out, especially around the holiday season."
