Three Thoughts: Forsberg dazzles as Formenton scores twice
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The team snapped a six-game losing streak Thursday night with a 3-2 road win over the Carolina Hurricanes that was highlighted by performances from Anton Forsberg and Alex Formenton, as Three Thoughts examines.
Sens get a W
For the first time since Nov. 13, the Sens collected a win, and they showed great heart to leave Raleigh with two points.
The Sens built a 2-0 lead with less than 10 minutes to play but two quick goals from the Hurricanes had the scores level with 6:13 to play. But it took just 19 seconds for the Sens to regain the lead with Josh Norris being credit with the game-winner after his initial shot was saved by Antti Raanta but the loose puck hit the right foot of Ian Cole and slid into the net.
"Gutsy" was how Senators head coach D.J. Smith described his team's performance.
"I told the guys this morning, this would be one of the gutsier ones to get off the schneid," he continued. "People had us counted out with everything we'd been through.
"It's the perfect place for us to get that win that we needed because it's a tough building to win it. It's a big night for us."
The victory was Ottawa's second road win of the season and came against a team that had the third most wins in the NHL entering play.
"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 Sens return to action Saturday against Colorado where they'll be looking to build on Thursday's momentum. The Sens have typically been a good home team under Smith but are 3-8-0 on home ice this season.
"Stick to what we did," Tierney said about building off of Thursday's result. "Work hard. Do the little things right and try to feel good about ourselves after beating a really good team."
Forsberg shines
A lot of adjectives could be used to describe Forsberg's performance Thursday but brilliant seems to be a fitting word.
The Swede stopped a career high 47 shots to collect his second win of the season.
"Forsberg was outstanding and sometimes what you need to get out of something is your goalie to stand in there and give you a gutsy effort," Smith said.
Forsberg was busy out of the gate, making 20 first period stops. He turned away 14 more shots in the second period before the Hurricanes beat him with their 43rd shot of the night with 7:58 to play. Carolina tied the game before Norris' restored Ottawa's lead but even in the third period, he stopped 13 of 15 shots.
"I felt good," Forsberg said. "It was nice to get a lot of shots at the start and get some confidence and relax a little bit. After that, I was just trying to keep rolling with it."
His 47 save victory last night tied Craig Anderson's franchise record for most saves in a Senators win. Anderson had set the record initially on Feb. 19, 2011.
"He was unbelievable," Tierney said of Forsberg. "He was really calm. There were a lot of loose pucks sitting around the crease and in the slot and he didn't panic at all. He played positionally and found a way to keep making saves again and again for us.
Formenton buries two
Formenton has shown in the past that his skillet of speed and finish can be lethal and he demonstrated it again Thursday.
In the first period, he took Tyler Ennis' bank pass off the right boards, drove to the net and outskated Brendan Smith in the process, before sliding the puck under Raanta at 2:43 to give Ottawa an early lead.
"His speed off the puck is outstanding," Smith said. "He didn't play a ton but he's a dangerous player and a player that's going to be good for us for a long time. His compete level was really good."
He played just 9:41 but he made every second count as in the third period he scored his second of the night, although he didn't know too much about it.
After Ennis' shot was saved, Formenton was pushed into Raanta by Andrei Svechnikov and in a mad scramble, in which Formenton was trying to play the puck while laying on the ice, Martin Necas inadvertently kicked the puck into his own net.
It was called a goal on the ice, but after the referees consulted one another, it was waved off. So Smith challenged and the call was again overturned, 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."
As for the decision to challenge the play, all the credit goes to goaltending coach Zac Bierk, although on Thursday there was some assistance from Brady Tkachuk.
"[Zac] is the one that studies these throughout the summer, what's a challenge and what's not a challenge, what's goalie interference and what is not," Smith said. "So, we're communicating with him but ultimately it's my call.
"But I looked at Brady and Brady said "let's do it." Sometimes you've got to listen to your gut and the heart of your team."
