OTTAWA — Craig Anderson had to think about it for a second or two: About whether, in his more than decade-long NHL career—and even before that, stretching back to when he was a kid—he’s ever gone through an entire period without facing a single shot.
“I don’t think so,” the Ottawa Senators goaltender said, finally, shaking his head. “I get at least one, usually.”
And what a time to see a stat like that. In Game 1 of Ottawa’s first-round series against Boston on Wednesday night at Canadian Tire Centre, the visiting Bruins failed to register a shot in the second period.
And yet, it wasn’t enough for the Senators to pull out a win.
Leading 1-0 heading into the third after a goal from Bobby Ryan, Ottawa gave up two in the final frame on costly giveaways to lose a crucial home contest, 2-1. It leaves them down a game in the series and with one more at home on Saturday afternoon before they head to Boston.
“We had the puck on our stick multiple times to get the puck out, and we just couldn’t do it, so they made us pay,” Anderson said. “They’ve got good players and they made good plays. That was a lucky bounce on the second one, it goes right to the guy, but it starts with making good decisions with the puck.”
“The guy” it went to was none other than Bruins leading scorer, Brad Marchand, who had an 85-point regular season.
With 2:33 to go, and the game tied at 1—centreman Frank Vatrano scored the first goal for Boston less than five minutes into the third, and in his playoff debut—a blocked Patrice Bergeron shot rebounded and landed on Marchand’s stick.
The 28-year-old from Halifax, who’s back in the lineup after serving two games at the end of the regular season for spearing, made no mistake, and potted the winner.
You could feel both goals coming. The Senators were scrambling in their own end, giving up the puck repeatedly. In the words of Ottawa’s head coach Guy Boucher: “it was giveaway after giveaway after giveaway” for two shifts, and both resulted in goals.
“We couldn’t get the puck out,” added captain Erik Karlsson, who was out of the lineup for the last couple games of the regular season with a foot injury, and didn’t look quite 100 per cent in speed or mobility (he was still one of Ottawa’s best players in Game 1, though). “I think we got a little bit cute in the third and then we were worried about where we were gonna put it, instead of making sure it got out, and it ended up costing us.”
The Senators had 27 shots compared to Boston’s 25, and they outplayed the Bruins for large stretches of the game, but weren’t able to capitalize on their chances.
Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask was solid—“tip your hat to him,” Anderson said—and kept his team in it, particularly in the second period when the Senators had 12 shots and were pressing.
“We’re gonna have to find a way to score more than one to win,” said Ryan. “I think we passed up on some shots. I think I was guilty of it as well.”
Not on his goal, though.
Ryan cut across the crease and fanned on his first shot—thanks to the ridiculous reach of Zdeno Chara, who’s seven feet tall on skates—but Ryan kept with the puck as he cut across the front of the net, and from a bad angle, he wristed a shot past Rask.
What he saw on the play was very little, if anything at all. “Ah, truthfully?” Ryan said. “About a 15-foot reach. Chara took away everything.
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“I’ve been playing against him for a while, I knew he was gonna eventually kinda swipe at it, so I put it into his triangle and tried to shoot it right away. I missed that opportunity and just tried to stick with it. I thought about passing that one and I said I might as well flip this in and hope for the best. Lucky goal, but we’ll take it.”
Then Ryan yelled, he opened his arms, he looked at the crowd—they’d been chanting “Bobby, Bobby!”—before meeting his teammates for the group hug while the fans roared. Ryan kissed a teammate on the helmet when he sat on the bench, shortly after.
Ryan, who has four times scored 30 or more goals in his NHL career, had just 13 goals in 62 games this regular season, which he called “frustrating.” But he came out flying Wednesday, playing much of the game with Clarke MacArthur and Derick Brassard, and creating plenty of chances.
He said the feeling in the Sens dressing room between the second and third periods was all positive.
“We were excited about going out in the third with the lead, you always wanna do that, especially in the playoffs,” Ryan said. “Everything was looking like we were in control, but you get out there and sometimes it’s easier said than done.”
As Boucher put it, of the third: “I think we gave them back the game.”
The first period was scoreless, but it was full of chances—a Dion Phaneuf giveaway led to a David Pastrnak breakaway (Pastrnak fell into the net, but the puck didn’t) and then Brassard immediately had a breakaway chance the other way, but Rask made the pad save. It was also plenty physical. Sens centreman Zack Smith laid an early hit on Chara to the delight of the crowd to set the tone early.
Anderson was solid, and made 14 saves in the first. “The way we’ve been playing,” he said, “it seems like we give up a lot, and then all of a sudden we change momentum and take it to them quite a bit, and don’t give up anything.”
Bruins interim head coach Bruce Cassidy called the second period “discouraging,” because the team was “always defending.”
“The positive, we were only down a goal going into the third, even though in the second we didn’t generate much.”
Nothing, actually. Though Anderson says he wasn’t exactly bored back there.
“Right off the bat they had the power play, pucks were moving in, they just didn’t hit the net,” he said. “We blocked quite a few shots in the second too. It’s just a matter of staying mentally sharp and being ready for the next one.”
Well, the next one comes Saturday, at home, for Anderson and the Senators. And it’s a big one.
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