GARRIOCH: The Senators take one on the chin in 6-3 loss to Hawks

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BLACKHAWKS 6, SENATORS 3

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This Hockey Night in Canada didn’t finish the way the Ottawa Senators would’ve scripted by any stretch of the imagination.

On a night the Senators had the chance to send everybody home in the mood to party, they suffered an ugly and somewhat embarrassing 6-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks in front of 14,252 at the Canadian Tire Center.

The Senators jumped out to a 2-0 lead on the strength of goals from Thomas Chabot and Connor Brown in the first period, then they pretty much came apart at the seams the Hawks skated away with the two points.

Nick Paul also chipped in as the Senators could only muster three shots on Chicago goalie Marc-Andre Fleury in the third. Anton Forsberg has had better nights but the Senators struggled mightily holding onto the puck in their zone.

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“Disappointing effort from our group. We just had a tough time defending,” Brown said. “Give them credit, they made some good plays with the puck and they’ve got some high skill players out there, but we didn’t execute nearly good enough away from the puck.”

Coming off a 4-3 OT victory over the Seattle Kraken, the Senators were looking for a better effort than the last time they dropped a 5-1 decision to the Hawks on Nov. 1 at the United Center. The Senators hadn’t beaten the Hawks at home since Dec. 3, 2015 and the club’s last win came Dec. 20, 2016 in Chicago.

The Senators were trying to win three straight for only the second time this season. The last time the club won three in a row was Dec. 2nd-to-Dec. 6th, but they have to be better than this to get over the hump.

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“We just laid off just a bit. They went to the room, they came out fired up, and the second period was probably our worst period in a month. They just grinded us,” said coach DJ Smith.

The Senators decided to continue to ride Forsberg by giving him his fourth straight start and his fifth in six games. He didn’t get much help, but third period goals by Dylan Strome and Caleb Jones put this away.

This game was hardly a goaltending battle because neither Forsberg or Fleury were great. As a result, the Senators were down 4-3 after the second because the club squandered a lead for the second straight game.

Only eight seconds after Paul tied it up by making a nifty move on Chicago’s Ryan Carpenter to pull the puck back to beat Fleury at 17:41 of the second to tie it up 3-3, the Hawks took a 4-3 lead thanks to Sam Lafferty.

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“That was probably the game for us,” said Smith. “We just didn’t play the way we play when we’re winning games. We just look sloppy tonight.”

This game took a turn for the worse for the Senators in a matter of minutes to start the second. Hawks’ captain Jonathan Toews scored twice in a span of 1:41 to erase Chicago’s 2-0 deficit.

Then, Jones first of the game gave his club a 3-2 lead at 9:07 of the second.

Toews fired it by Forsberg on the glove side from the slot on the power play to tie it up at 2:39 of the second. Earlier, a turnover in the Ottawa zone resulted in Toews sixth of the season when he fired it by Forsberg.

Patrick Kane assisted on both goals plus another in the third and that moved him into second all-time in Hawks’ scoring with 1,155 points. He’s behind Stan Makita, who has 1,467 points.

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Chabot extended the club’s lead to 2-0 in the first period when he fired his sixth of the season by Fleury with a blast from the slot at 14:07. For a guy who was game-time decision, Chabot didn’t look like he was hurting one bit on that blast.

Taken down in the corner by Ottawa winger Parker Kelly, Chicago defenseman Connor Murphy was taken off the ice on a stretcher after hitting his head on the boards.

Both teams left their benches and watched quietly as the medical staff attended Murphy. He gave a thumbs up to his teammates as he was taken off the ice on the stretcher. He didn’t return to the game but the Hawks noted in their update he was at the rink and wasn’t taken to hospital.

Kelly can expect a call from the NHL’s department of player safety and there’s a chance he’ll be suspended. You can argue whether the hit was clean or dirty because Murphy turned towards the glass but Kelly was assessed a major plus a game-misconduct which means it will be reviewed.

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“It’s unfortunate. I went and saw Parker after the first period and he was down,” Smith said. “He’s a guy that plays physical but he’s not ‘that’ guy. (Murphy) went down the wall, his job is to take him and take him hard.

“(Murphy) kind of turned and it’s too late at that point. He was coming back with some speed and it’s unfortunate.”

Brown opened the scoring with the club shorthanded at the start of Chicago’s five-minute power play. In on a 2-on-1, Brown used Alex Formenton as a decoyto beat Fleury at 3:18.

The Senators will host the Arizona Coyotes Monday as the home stand continues.

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Twitter: @sungarrioch