With an unbelievable appearance, Anders Nilsson, Senators’ goalie was the main reason the game ended 5-2.
Richard Sanchez, goalkeeper for MLS team Chicago Fire, said in 2011 “A goalie without luck is not a goalie.” This was shown last night when Nilsson miraculously saved his goal in multiple occasions, being the most impressive one three minutes before the end of the game. In that play, there were a series of rebounds that ended with the puck hitting the post, giving Nilsson time to catch it.
Another example of how lucky Nilsson was last night, was half-way through the last period, when the Avs scored. What’s the issue? The net was off the hole so after analysis, the ref decided not to give the goal. This is what good luck means and when a goalie has a lucky night, the rest of the team need to take advantage of it and score as often as they can. The Sens last night did exactly that.
“If you look at the five-man unit, they were terrific tonight,” says head coach Guy Boucher. “They were physical, they were in their faces and they did it the whole game.”
The Senators finished being the dominant team with Matt Duchene scoring to an empty net. No questions asked, last night, the Sens were the best on the ice. Duchene — who was acquired by the Senators from the Avalanche in a massive three-team trade involving the Nashville Predators and reason why the Avalanche own the Sens first-round pick in this year’s draft — was inspired, Brady Tkachuk played as if there was no tomorrow and Stone was the real Mark Stone, being always in the right place when needed.
The third period was exciting because the Sens perfected everything they did during the second period. The Avs were dominated by the counterattacks by the Sens.
The Sens ended up with 32 shots tonight, this shows the motivation the players had even after a very tough past week of being outside Canada’s capital.
Control, excitement and passion is how the Sens started the second period with Tkachuk scoring right away the first goal for the home team. The Sens changed their tactic from a passive, almost submissive to a more aggressive and offensive. With this change, they surprised the Avs who couldn’t figure out what was going on until the end of the period. The result by the end of the period was 3-1 for the Avalanche.
Mark Stone scored the second one for the Sens and his 21st of the season. Ryan Dzingel scored the third goal for the Senators with 11 minutes left to play.
Anders Nilsson has had one of the best nights of his career saving multiple times the Sens’ goal, still, couldn’t avoid Nikita Zadrov’s goal with 18:53 remaining.
During the first period, the Senators tried to be superior than the Avalanche but they couldn’t find a way to score because the aggressive way the Avalanche was standing on defense.
With 1:40 seconds left to play, Bobby Ryan found himself with the puck in front of Semyon Varlamov, who miraculously saved Ryan’s powerful shot.
With 16:18 to go, Tyson Barrie shot forcing goalie Anders Nilsson’s reaction to keep his goal at zero.
