Nick Paul scored twice in the first period and Matt Murray made 27 saves for his first win of the season as the Ottawa Senators beat the Calgary Flames 4-1 on Thursday.
The Senators were playing their first game since New Year’s Day and just their second in 26 days, but they didn’t appear rusty as they outshot Calgary 34-28 to open an abbreviated two-game road trip to Alberta.
Drake Batherson and Connor Brown also scored for Ottawa (10-18-2), which has had 11 games postponed. His 30 games played are tied with the New York Islanders for the lowest in the league.
Matthew Tkachuk scored for Calgary (17-11-6), which has lost four straight and dropped to 2-7-1 in its last 10.
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Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 of 34 shots in the losing effort and fell to 12-8-5. Murray, who lost his first six starts of the season, won for the first time since April 22, 2021.
The Flames were playing at home for the first time since Dec. 11 following postponements caused by a COVID outbreak and capacity restrictions.
With restrictions still in place, actual attendance was considerably less than half the allowed capacity with far more empty seats than fans.
The home crowd didn’t have much to celebrate either, as Paul opened the scoring on the first shot of the game less than two minutes later.
A fumble in the defensive zone along the sideboards caused the puck to go to Alex Formenton, who set up Paul and his wrist shot from 25 feet sailed over Markstrom’s glove.
Later in the period, Formenton took the puck from Mikael Backlund inside his own blue line and from there Connor Brown and Paul worked a give and take with Paul finishing cleanly at the 16:37 mark. The account marked the third two-goal game of his career and the first since December 30, 2019.
Ottawa Senators’ Nick Paul, right, scores over Calgary Flames goaltender Jacob Markstrom during first period NHL hockey action in Calgary, Thursday, January 13, 2022.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Paul was playing center between Formenton and Brown, and the Senators missed Tim Stutzle, who was added to the COVID protocol on Wednesday. Ottawa is also without centers Shane Pinto and Colin White, who are out with shoulder injuries.
Leading 2-0 after 20 minutes, the Senators outscored the Flames 13-6 in the second period, scoring the only goal in the final minute off a sharp angle by Batherson.
From the goal line to the side of the net with a small opening over Markstrom’s shoulder as he hugged the post, Batherson sent a perfect shot under the crossbar for his 10th goal.
The Flames got on the board 47 seconds into the third on Tkachuk’s perfect deflection of Chris Tanev’s shot.
Nullifying any hope of a comeback, however, Brown restored Ottawa’s three-goal lead on a breakaway at 4:52. Jumping on a missed pass from Tkachuk from behind the Senators’ net, he ran on a breakaway and beat Markstrom through all five holes.
Defenseman Jacob Bernard-Docker, a native of the nearby town of Okotoks, Alta., was activated from the taxi squad and paired with Thomas Chabot. Among the family in attendance to watch his ninth career game were Bernard-Docker’s parents, who watched him play an NHL game live for the first time.
Scott Sabourin’s first game for Ottawa since Nov. 14 lasted just over one period. He walked away with an injury after losing a one-sided fight against Milan Lucic.
Scott Sabourin of the Ottawa Senators, left, fights Milan Lucic of the Calgary Flames during second period NHL hockey action in Calgary, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
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