Hoffman’s OT winner leads Senators past Oilers

Mike Hoffman scored a pair of goals, including the overtime winner, and the Ottawa Senators snapped a three-game skid by beating the Edmonton Oilers 4-3 Thursday night.

EDMONTON — Mike Hoffman scored a pair of goals, including the overtime winner, as the Ottawa Senators snapped a three-game losing skid, hanging on for a 4-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday night.

Hoffman sent a shot from the slot under the arm of Oilers goalie Ben Scrivens 2:39 into overtime to preserve the win for the Senators, who had let a 3-0 lead slip away.

Alex Chiasson and Milan Michalek also scored for the Senators (8-4-4) who are, however, 3-1-2 in their last six outings.

Leon Draisaitl, Jordan Eberle and Jeff Petry responded for the Oilers (6-9-2) who have lost two in a row.

Ottawa got on the board three-and-a-half minutes into the game after Cody Ceci picked off a poor clearing attempt by Edmonton and fed it to Hoffman, who used defender Justin Schultz as a screen to cleanly beat Scrivens with a wrist shot. It was the third consecutive game Hoffman has scored a goal.


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The Senators took a 2-0 lead with seven minutes remaining in the opening frame as Chiasson tipped a Chris Phillips shot from just above the top of the circle into the net for his fourth of the season.

Edmonton had a chance to get one of those goals back a minute later but Mark Arcobello fanned on a shot with a wide-open net to shoot at before Senators starter Craig Anderson could get across.

Ottawa took a three-goal lead with four minutes left in the first as Bobby Ryan made a nice pass across to Michalek, who beat Scrivens high to the stick side with a bullet of a shot.

The Sens outshot the Oilers 17-7 in the first.

Edmonton finally got some momentum with seven minutes remaining in the second period as Draisaitl chipped in the rebound of a David Perron power-play shot for the second goal of his NHL career.

The Oilers closed the shots to 23-20 in Ottawa’s favour after 40 minutes.

Edmonton got to within a goal midway through the third after Eberle was able to tuck in a loose puck during a mad scramble in front of Anderson in the Ottawa net. It was Eberle’s 100th career NHL goal.

The Oilers tied the game with six minutes left in the third period as Ryan Nugent-Hopkins gained the zone and made a great buttonhook pass back to Petry who unleashed a bomb for his first of the season to make it 3-3.

Edmonton was buzzing with another power play to end the game, but the Senators held on to send the game to overtime.

The Oilers took over the shot clock in the third, leading 37-29 after 60 minutes.

The Senators conclude a three-game Western Canada road trip in Calgary on Saturday. Edmonton is off until Sunday, when they play the second game of a five-game homestand against the Arizona Coyotes.

Notes: The Oilers swept the two-game series against Ottawa last season and came into the game with three straight wins over the Senators… Ottawa rookie Curtis Lazar is played his first NHL game in Edmonton after helping the Edmonton Oil Kings of the Western Hockey League to a Memorial Cup championship last season. Lazar is still looking for his first goal, but had five assists in his first 13 games this season… Oilers forward Luke Gazdic was back with the team after being recalled by the Oilers following a two-week conditioning assignment with the Oklahoma City Barons of the American Hockey League, but was a healthy scratch… There was some good news on the injury front for the Oilers as star forward Taylor Hall skated with the team for the first time since suffering a strained right knee two weeks ago. A return date is still unknown… Remaining out with a back injury for the Senators was defenceman Marc Methot.

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