Sens get back in win column after Carolina victory
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Alex Formenton (2) and Josh Norris scored for the Senators (5-15-1) as Filip Forsberg made a career high 47 saves. Carolina (15-6-1) had goals from Teuvo Teravainen and Andrei Svechnikov as Antti Raanta turned away 17 shots.
"This is a tough building to come into," Senators head coach D.J. Smith said. "It's the perfect place for us to get that win that we needed. It's a big night for us."
After the Sens built a 2-0 lead with less than 10 minutes to play, Carolina came back to tie the game at 2-2 with 6:13 to play. But the Senators didn't buckle.
They re-took the lead only 19 seconds later as Drake Batherson fed Norris into the offensive zone and he drove towards the goal and saw his shot stopped by Raanta but the puck would hit the trailing right leg of a diving Ian Cole and go into the net.
"It feels incredible right now to get that win," Formenton said.
The victory snapped Ottawa's six-game losing streak and marked their first win since Nov. 13. It was also just their second road win of the season.
"I thought we played really well tonight," Forsberg said. "We played as a team and we were sacrificing ourselves to win."
It took just 2:43 for the Senators to jump out to a 1-0 lead and it came through Formenton who took Tyler Ennis' bank pass off the right boards and slid the puck under Raanta despite having Brendan Smith all over his back. It was his first goal in more than month having not scored since Nov. 1.
Carolina nearly tied the game in the final 10 seconds of the period as on the power play, Svechnikov rang the crossbar as Forsberg made 20 first period saves.
"The first period we really battled," Smith said. "We blocked a lot of shots and got a timely goal."
Martin Necas hammered the crossbar with 10:38 left in the second and less than 90 seconds later, Connor Brown hit the post for the Sens on a spinning shot out front as neither team could find the back of the net in the middle stanza.
Formenton had his second of the night with 10:55 to play in regulation as after Ennis' shot was saved, Formenton was pushed into Raanta by Svechnikov and in a mad scramble, in which Formenton was trying to play the puck while laying on the ice, Necas inadvertently kicked the puck into his own net.
A goal was initially given but was then waved off before Smith challenged the play successfully, giving Formenton his first career multi-goal NHL game.
"I saw Enzo was shooting it and tried to drive the net and I honestly had no idea it had gone in until I got up and saw Tierney cellying," Formenton said. "We just decided to challenge it. I got a little bit of a clip on the back of my heel that made me slide in and luckily it turned out."
Carolina finally solved Forsberg on their 43rd shot of the night as on the power play, Sebastian Aho fed Teravainen at 12:02 who fired home a one-timer from the right circle for his 100th career goal.
The Hurricanes tied the game 1:45 later as Seth Jarvis' shot from the blue line was saved by Forsberg but he couldn't find the puck and Svechnikov poked home the loose puck. But not to be denied, it took just 19 seconds for Ottawa to re-take the lead and ultimately secure the two points.
"It was a pretty crazy game, especially in the third, but I thought the guys battled really hard all night," Chris Tierney said. "When things got tough, we kept pushing through and found a way and it feels nice to finally win one."
The 47 saves by Forsberg matched the franchise record for most saves in a Senators victory.
The Senators are back in action Saturday when they host the Colorado Avalanche at Canadian Tire Centre.
