Sens win shootout against Montreal in preseason
Josh Norris (2), Shane Pinto and Chris Tierney scored for the Sens as Anton Forsberg made 18 saves. Jeff Petry (2), Josh Anderson and Nick Suzuki had goals for Montreal while Jake Allen turned away 28 shots.
"That was a fun game to be a part of," Norris said. "I thought the guys were great and stuck with it and went out and played hockey.
"We played how we wanted to play and got some momentum back and the power play did some damage tonight which is nice to see after the struggles we've had."
The Senators won the shootout in Round 5 as Norris scored after Tyler Toffoli was denied by Forsberg. In the previous round, Joel Armia gave Montreal the advantage but Connor Brown also scored to send the game to a fifth round. There were no scorers through the first three rounds.
Montreal took a 1-0 lead just 10 seconds into the game as Anderson beat Forsberg with a wrister from the left faceoff circle on a partial breakaway. The lead was 2-0 at 3:41 as on a delayed penalty, Petry hammered home a one-timer from the top of the left circle for his first of the preseason.
"We were pretty calm on the bench, to be honest," Smith said after trailing 2-0.
Norris got the Sens on the board at 8:04 on the power play with a one-time rocket from the right dot off of Thomas Chabot's feed from the top of the blue line.
Ottawa knotted the game at 2-2 through Pinto as seconds after a Senators power play expired, he took an Erik Brannstrom feed, outbattled Romanov in the slot, got his stick ahead of his opponent's and fired a low shot past Allen for his second of the preseason 1:47 into the second period.
The Senators had its first lead of the night at 4:24 and it came on another Norris power play marker as Alex Belzile sent the puck into the middle of the ice and Norris blasted another one-timer past Allen for a 3-2 Senators lead.
"Just more desperation," Smith said of the team's power play success. "We really put a lot more time into it this week. We also won faceoffs. You win a faceoff to start the power play, it makes a big difference. You have the puck and don't have to go 200 [feet] every time. We were just a little more dialed in."
Tierney's first preseason goal pushed the lead to 4-2 with 3:10 left in the period as on an odd-man rush he just got the puck over the goal line off of Tim Stützle's feed before Allen came sprawling back across the crease.
After the Sens couldn't convert on a power play to start the third period, Montreal capitalized on one of their own at 2:07 with Suzuki banging in a loose puck after Cole Caulfield's initial shot had hit the post to cut the Ottawa lead to 4-3.
Montreal tied the game with 60 seconds left in regulation on a blast from Petry that soared through traffic and the Senators nearly won the game in the extra frame as Drake Batherson hit the crossbar.
"You don't want to give that one up at the end there," Norris said. "It's a learning experience but we stuck with it, said forget about it, and wanted to win the game in overtime or a shootout and we did that.
"I thought a lot of guys played really well … a lot of guys did a lot of really good things."
The win marked the 100th preseason victory in Senators franchise history.
Ottawa, who are 3-3-0 this preseason, completes its exhibition schedule Saturday when they visit Toronto at 7pm.
