Alex DeBrincat scored the tiebreaking goal with less than three minutes remaining in the third period to give the visiting Ottawa Senators a 5-4 win over the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night.
Shane Pinto, Jakob Chychrun, Claude Giroux and Patrick Brown also scored for Ottawa. Mads Sogaard made 29 saves. Nick Holden and Tim Stützle each had two assists for Ottawa. Giroux, Mathieu Joseph and Jake Sanderson also recorded an assist.
Jared McCann scored twice and Vince Dunn and Jaden Schwartz added goals for the Kraken, who had their five-game winning streak halted. Philipp Grubauer had 26 saves. Alex Wennberg, Yanni Gourde and Daniel Sprong each had an assist, and Schwartz extended his points streak to five games.
“I feel like we were rushing the play,” McCann said. “We just gave them free breakouts. We didn’t finish checks in the first 20 minutes of the game. Their defence was jumping by us and getting odd-man rushes.”
WATCH | DeBrincat scores go-ahead goal as Senators beat Kraken:
Alex DeBrincat scored late in the third period giving Ottawa a 5-4 win over Seattle, and a crucial two points in the standings.
Ottawa scored the game’s first three goals and led 3-1 after the first period.
“We gave them every opportunity that they had,” Dunn said. “They’re a very desperate team right now. They’re right in the playoff race. They gave it the best first 10 minutes they had. We need to be prepared. We need to do a better job in our building.”
The Kraken then scored three straight, briefly taking the lead on Dunn’s goal at 3:23 of the third. That advantage didn’t last long as Giroux scored less than a minute later to tie the game.
“That’s a big win for us, to stay with it the way we did and find timely goals,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. “That’s as fast a team as we played and that’s a good hockey team.”
What. A. Shot! 1️⃣8️⃣ ➡️ 2️⃣8️⃣ 🚨<a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/GoSensGo?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#GoSensGo</a> <a href=”https://t.co/zZmKjWAnNk”>pic.twitter.com/zZmKjWAnNk</a>
—@Senators
DeBrincat then scored at 17:37 to seal a victory for the Senators, who were coming off a 5-0 loss to Chicago on Monday.
“We had a tough game in Chicago,” Pinto said, “but I just think the way we responded and the maturity we showed tonight will go a long way.”
Pinto, Chychrun and Brown scored in the first period for the Senators. Chychrun, who also had an assist, has two goals and two assists in three games since joining the Senators.
McCann, who has 33 goals this season, had the Kraken’s lone score in the first period and added another in the second. McCann has scored in each of the three games Seattle has played against the Senators since the start of the 2021-22 season.
“We scored enough tonight,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “That wasn’t the issue. We gave up too much. It doesn’t have to be a huge volume. It’s what we gave up and how we gave it up tonight, especially in the last 10 minutes of the hockey game.”
Senators goaltender Cam Talbot, a late scratch for Monday’s game due to a “mid-body injury” returned to Ottawa on Wednesday to receive treatment. Coach D.J. Smith told reporters on Wednesday that Talbot would miss three weeks.
Stützle is 10 assists away from 100.
The Senators next face the Canucks in Vancouver on Saturday.