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The Ottawa Senators weathered the storm on Sunday night.
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As people in Ottawa pulled out their shovels for the first time this winter, the Senators dug deep to get the job done with timely scoring and strong goaltending in a 4-2 victory over the Utah Mammoth in front of 17,470 at the Canadian Tire Centre.
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Michael Amadio scored in his fourth consecutive game to help put this away in the third, while Nick Cousins, Jordan Spence and Ridley Greig chipped in with goals.
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Goaltender Leevi Merilainen had a strong effort with 28 stops as the Senators moved their record to 3-0-2 in their past five games.
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“The way we played in the second and third is what we’ve been trying to achieve lately,” said alternate captain Thomas Chabot. “We stuck with it. We played our game the whole way, we gave ourselves our best chance we got it done.”
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A key turning point came just 22 seconds into the third, when the Senators challenged a goal by Jack McBain that would have tied it up 3-3. McBain bumped Merilainen and deposited the loose puck, but the Senators won the challenge.
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HOME, SWEET HOME
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This is the start of a four-game homestand for the Senators.
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They picked up three of four points in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Boston Bruins on Thursday and a 3-2 OT victory over Philadelphia on Saturday.
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The Senators came into this game with a 5-1-2 record in their past eight games, and were 6-3-3 since captain Brady Tkachuk suffered a torn thumb ligament.
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Cousins did a good job opening up a 3-1 lead at 13:52 of the second. He circled the net, pulled Utah goalie Vitek Vanecek out of position and fired it home for his third of the season.
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The Mammoth’s Nick Schmaltz scored his seventh career goal against the Senators to cut the lead to 3-2 with 1:04 left in the second.
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SHIFTING GEARS
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Rugged winger Hayden Hodgson was recalled from Belleville and made his Ottawa debut.
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Coach Travis Green told reporters before the game that it was for precautionary reasons, but neither Ollie Lycksell nor Kurtis MacDermid took warmup.
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Green continued to toy with his line combinations but didn’t make any changes on the blueline.
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That meant Spence suited up for his second straight game and scored his first in an Ottawa uniform. He fired a blast by Vanecek to give the Senators a 2-1 lead at 7:13 of the second.
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Spence has played in only seven of the club’s 16 games, and that has proved to be a sore point on social media. He has to make an impact if he’s going to stay in the lineup, and he had a two-point effort. That earned him playing time with Thomas Chabot for most of the third.
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