GARRIOCH GAME ARCHIVE: Shane Pinto plays hero as Senators open preseason victory

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The youth were served Sunday night when the Ottawa Senators opened the preseason.

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The senators wanted to take a look at some of their young prospects and some of those who served realized that they will make life harder when it comes to making those final decisions after a 3-2 overtime win over Winnipeg. Jets at Canada Life. Center.

Rookie center Shane Pinto, who was one of the club’s best players, fired winner of Winnipeg goalkeeper Eric Comrie just 25 seconds into the three-on-three session to give Ottawa the win. Alex Formenton and Ridly Greig also scored for the Senators. Filip Gustavsson stopped all 14 shots he faced.

Pinto is confident and has picked up right where he left off after playing 12 games last year.

“I just shot and went in, so it was good,” Pinto said. “DJ stressed that we are off to a good start and I think we did a good job.”

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There are decisions to be made before the season starts next month and this was the first opportunity to see some of these players. GM Pierre Dorion, coach DJ Smith, senior vice president Pierre McGuire, assistant Peter MacTavish and the rest of the hockey operations staff are trying to determine where they all fit in.

One guy who stepped up and made everyone take notice was Greig. He scored a beauty in the first period and then the 19-year-old notified in the middle of the second that he was not going to back down to anyone by checking on Pierre-Luc Dubois.

Although Greig was originally given a minor double per high suit, the umpires looked again and kicked him out of the game for cross-checking. Dubois left the game and did not return until the beginning of the third.

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Formenton tied 2-2 at 12:17 of the third when shooting inside the post to beat Comrie.

“Really good scoring goals in the third kept us alive and we found a way to score,” Smith said.

After playing on empty courts in Canada for all of last season, the reopening is different in every part of the country. While senators were cleared for 50% of the capacity to start the preseason at home, the COVID-19 rules in Manitoba allowed for a fully vaccinated crowd of 16,345.

Senators not only want to use preseason for evaluation, they also want to use it for preparation. There were no exhibition games in January due to the late start of the 2020-21 campaign and the club started the year with a 2-12-1 record before taking action.

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The senators did a solid job killing the older five-minute off Greig and Lassi Thomson was among those who did a good job helping make that happen. But, the club was outscored 12-1 in the second frame and they were lucky enough to be down 2-1 after 40 minutes.

Anton Forsberg left after allowing two goals on 19 shots in just over 30 minutes.

Not long after CJ Seuss gave the Jets a 2-1 lead at 2:13 of the second by beating Forsberg on the glove side, Senators defender Dillon Heatherington dropped the gloves on Luke Johnson. You have to do what you can to get noticed at camp and Heatherington is a badass player.

The Senators and Jets could have been better if they had a special teams practice because the first period felt like they were power plays. The umpires called seven penalties, including four for Ottawa, and it sure looked like both coaches were having a hard time flowing with their line combinations.

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Dubois drew 1-1 with just 47 seconds left in the first period as he beat Forsberg under with the Jets on the power play.

Greig, the club’s 28th overall pick in the 2020 NHL draft, is a guy the Senators have been itching to see in these exhibition games. He has to be sent back to the WHL’s Brandon Wheat Kings, but he’s pushing to start the season here and didn’t hurt his position by opening the scoring in this one.

He showed a lot of confidence by passing the puck through his legs, then went from his skate to the pole to beat Comrie upstairs with a backhand at 11:30. It’s no wonder that Belleville coach Troy Mann has stated multiple times that Greig should be allowed to play in the AHL this season.

“He’s very confident and it seems like we have a really good player,” Smith said.

The club also held a shooting practice after the game was over and Erik Brannstrom had the winner on that one.

This was the first of seven preseason games for Ottawa.

The Senators will host the Leafs in their first preseason home game on Wednesday at 7 pm at home.

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Twitter: @sungarrioch