KANATA, Ontario – The line-up wasn’t exactly ideal, including a 21-year-old fourth-row goalkeeper who was thrown into the storm for his NHL debut.
The shorthanded avalanche, which awarded Ottawa one goal and disallowed another, appeared to lose Saturday night, but Colorado bounced back from a three-goal deficit to rack up one point in a 6-5 loss to the Senators in the Canadian Tire Center.
Sens-Center and team captain Brady Tkachuk defeated rookie goalkeeper Justus Annunen in a breakaway group after 51 seconds in overtime. Tkachuk jumped on an offensive zone turnover from Nathan MacKinnon, beating the winner past Annunen, who was called up by the AHL’s Colorado Eagles on Wednesday.
The Senators scored three of their goals, including their first two within 29 seconds at the start of the first period, to take a 2-1 lead with no avalanche turnovers. Tkachuk had two goals and three points and won 12 of 15 duels.
Colorado (12-7-2), now 1-1-1 on its five-game road trip, sustained injuries to six regular players, including top scorer Nazem Kadri and Cale Makar, the NHL’s top scorer among defenders. The Avs have also missed out on rookie defender Bo Byram and No. 1 goalkeeper Darcy Kuemper, and strikers JT Compher and Ryan Murray are on injured reserves rather than on the go.
“That’s a big point. I don’t love the game of ours but I love the determination to stick with it and believe that we can return, ”said Avs coach Jared Bednar. “It is not easy to lose three to each other, it is not easy. It wasn’t easy for us tonight. We didn’t have a lot of 1-on-2 power plays, but we stuck with them. I’ll take the point. “
Annunen made his NHL debut after starter Jonas Johansson allowed four goals in 15 shots and Ottawa took a 4-2 lead, which turned into a 5-2 lead.
Alex Newhook, Tyson Jost and Devon Toews of the Avs scored the last three regular goals, the latter came with 1:20 remaining and shortly afterwards Gabe Landeskog’s goal was disqualified on video review for being offside.
Ottawa’s third goal was awarded by the referees and confirmed by NHL officials after Avs defender Jack Johnson checked Senators striker Tim Stutzle into the goal post and Johansson. The puck followed Stutzle over the goal line and the league decided Johnson removed the net so the puck was live even though the goal posts came out of their anchors.
“That 3-2 goal was a crazy decision in my opinion,” said Landeskog. “I mean, the network is off. The goalkeeper is in the net and the puck goes in when the net is out. I don’t even understand. But a few hard jumps. “
The Senators improved to 6-15-1, including 4-8-0 at home.
The Avs went into the game with 1:26 with 1:26 and almost doubled it when MacKinnon (three assists in 27:22) fired an iron shot next to goalkeeper Anton Forsberg. But the dynamic quickly changed when the Senators scored 5:28 and 5:57 goals. Colorado made the same on power play, with Landeskog taking a stick at Toews’ slap shot from the point.
Ottawa overtook the Avs 14-6 in the second period and Johansson was dragged after the Senators took a 4-2 lead with a shot from Josh Norris on the wrist. Stutzle scored a goal exactly 5 minutes later in the power play and nailed Annunen his first NHL goal allowed.
Colorado came back within two goals as Newhook split three defenders, defeating Forsberg with a highlight reel goal for the 20-year-old. Jost and Toews (team high 31:17) scored the only goals of the third period.
Footnotes. Kadri, who has accumulated points in 13 of his last 14 games, missed his first game of the season. He left the skate in the middle on Saturday morning. Byram ran in a regular shirt on Saturday morning but missed his second straight game and eighth in the last nine games with symptoms from a concussion. Kümper ran Saturday morning, but didn’t shoot between the pipes. Kuemper is listed with an upper body injury – presumably a head injury sustained while skating in Toronto on Wednesday morning. … Avs defender Jacob MacDonald played a team low 6:11 after being recalled by the Eagles on Friday. MacDonald did not participate in the morning kate because his equipment did not arrive on time.
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