The Senators weren’t the least bit pleased with the officials as their winless streak in continued in Raleigh, where they haven’t experienced victory since 2021.
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Hurricanes 4, Senators 0
The Ottawa Senators took one on the chin.
The Senators were left seeing red after they let another pivotal two points slip away on Hockey Night in Canada in a 4-0 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes on Saturday night at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, N.C.
While the Senators weren’t pleased with the officiating on the way to their second straight loss, they didn’t help themselves as Carolina goalie Spencer Martin made 25 stops for his first National Hockey League shutout.
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Coming off an ugly 5-4 overtime loss to the Philadelphia Flyers at home on Thursday, the Senators pressed to get back into this one in the third period, but the game was already out of reach and they weren’t good enough.
That has been a massive issue for this club on some nights.
“We didn’t play that bad. We had our chances, our special teams could be a little bit better,” alternate captain Claude Giroux told TSN 1200’s, Gord Wilson. “We know it’s a hard building to play in. They came out hard. We did some good things, but not enough.”
The result in Raleigh wasn’t a surprise because the Senators haven’t had much success in that rink or against the Carolina franchise.
They came into this one with a 5-13-0 record against the Hurricanes in the past 18 games. To make matters worse, the last time they won in Raleigh was on Dec. 2, 2021.
SNIPING ABOUT THE STRIPES
The Senators were fit to be tied with the officiating by referees Jake Brenk and Michael Markovic.
With Ottawa trailing 2-0 after the second period, Jackson Blake scored Carolina’s second power-play goal of the night only 43 seconds into the third to extend the lead and that was all she wrote.
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A 5-on-3 for eight seconds, after Ottawa was given too many men on the ice, resulted in Sebastian Aho’s fourth goal of the season. The ‘Canes won the faceoff and Aho fired a blast by Anton Forsberg on the glove side.
That goal came with only 42 seconds left in the second frame.
The Senators went nearly 11 minutes without a shot late in the first period until midway through the second. The good news was that the Hurricanes had only five shots in the second period.
Tim Stutzle appeared to tie it 1-1 for Ottawa at 10:25 of the second period when he beat Martin with a shot, but the goal was immediately waved off and Stutzle was assessed an interference penalty for knocking the stick out of Andrei Svechnikov’s hands.
“That was a huge part of the game. I really don’t understand how that’s not a goal or how that’s a penalty,” Green said. “It’s a big moment in the game. It could be 1-1.
“The refs have a tough job. I thought Timmy’s goal should have counted.”
The Senators were incensed with that call.
“It’s a crazy game. It goes both ways so I’m not going to comment on that,” said defenceman Jake Sanderson.
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It didn’t help that the Senators had a horrible start in the first period.
They spent too much time in their zone and were outshot 14-8 by Carolina, but were only down 1-0. More bad news: the Senators came into this game with a 1-6-1 record when the opponent scored first.
BACK TO FORSBERG
It made sense to return to Forsberg for the start in net after Linus Ullmark’s performance in the loss to the Flyers.
In this case, Forsberg was the best bet. He came into this game with a 3-3-0 career mark versus Carolina, plus a .902 save percentage and a 3.69 goals-against. Not exactly sparkling numbers, but there was some success there.
Ullmark has a 0-4-1 career record against the Hurricanes with a .883 save percentage and a 4.04 goals-against average. The best bet was to give him a break, though, after he gave up five goals on 19 shots against Philly.
Forsberg didn’t look good on the opening goal by Jordan Martinook, who took a shot from behind the goal line that bounced off Forsberg and into the net eight minutes into the first period.
PERRON RETURNS
David Perron returned after missing 11 games for personal reasons.
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The veteran winger left the team to be with his family after his wife, Vanessa, gave birth to their fourth child, Elizabeth, and the newborn needed life-saving surgery for a mass on one lung.
With Elizabeth heading in the right direction, Perron was comfortable enough to rejoin his teammates full-time.
“It’s great to have him back on two levels: one as a player for our team, but also for himself,” Green said “It’s been a long process and it’s good to have him back.
“He’s a leader in the group, he’s gone through a lot of experiences, and he understands a lot of the stuff that we’re talking about as far as what it takes to win in the NHL.”
Perron took winger Noah Gregor’s spot on the roster for Saturday’s game.
bgarrioch@postmedia.com
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