Canadians continue losing streak with 6-4 defeat to Senators

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Ottawa – The Canadians’ race to the bottom continued Saturday with a 6-4 loss to the Ottawa Senators at the Canadian Tyre Center.

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It is the Canadians’ eighth consecutive defeat, and goalkeeper Carrie Price’s record has slipped to 0-4 since returning from knee surgery last summer.

The Canadians had to play catch-up after the Senators scored four unanswered goals, including three within 68 seconds to lead 5-1 in the second half.

Austin Watson scored in the 44th minute of the second half, and the gates opened when Parker Kelly scored in 6:43. Josh Norris collected his 34th goal at 7:15, and Mark Castelich scored his second goal of the game—and the second of his career in the National Hockey League—at 7:50.

At that point Price had conceded five goals on 15 shots, and when Martin held a St. Louis timeout it looked like the goalkeeper’s night might be over, but he stayed in the game.

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The Canadians’ offense enjoyed some success after the deadline. Novice Cole Caufield scored his 20th goal on a feed from Mike Hoffman, and Joel Edmondson cut Ottawa’s lead to two goals. But Alex Forminton scored with a short opportunity before 1:55 left to play, to give Ottawa a 6-3 lead after two halves.

The Canadians had a 16-6 shot lead in the first half but entered the first half with a 1-1 draw.

Senators scored from their first shot on goal. Price had a hard time finding the puck after Chris Weidman blocked Scott Saborin’s shot. The disc rebounded in the air and fell to the far side as Kastelic seized the opening opportunity to score his first goal in the NHL.

Montreal reclaimed that 15:53 ​​the first time when Rem Pitlick was in front of the net to take a feed from Jake Evans in the right corner. Anton Forsberg stopped Petlik’s first attempt, but Petlik buried the rebound. He later added his 15th goal of the season midway through the third half to make the final score respectable.

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The ongoing animosity between these teams has appeared on several occasions.

Ottawa fans, unhappy with Brendan Gallagher’s derogatory comments about Tim Stutzel after the last game between these two teams, booed the Canadian striker when he appeared in a celebratory opener and again whenever he touched the disc during the match.

If anything, boos seemed to energize Gallagher, who had two scoring chances in the first half.

And Gallagher received a simple penalty early in the second half to knockout Stutzl. The Ottawa player seemed to be trying to sell the penalty when he went on the ice from a standoff, and it’s possible that Gallagher decided if he was going to get a penalty, he had to make it well and hit Stützle in the plates.

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Michael Pezzetta, after a two-match ban, tangled with Castelic after his first goal, and there was a scuffle late in the period that resulted in three minor penalties and 10 minutes of misconduct for Formenton and Alexander Romanov, who gave his English a practice while he had a lively conversation with Formenton On their way to the dressing room.

There were chants of “Guy, Jay” when the senators made a video tribute to the late Jay LaFleur before the game. The Hockey Hall of Famer died Friday after a two-year battle with lung cancer.

phickey@postmedia.com

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