ST. LOUIS — The Ottawa Senators ended a five-game losing streak by handing the St. Louis Blues their fourth straight loss, 4-1 at Enterprise Center on Tuesday.
Josh Norris and Tim Stutzle each had a goal and two assists, and Anton Forsberg made 22 saves for the Senators (20-31-5), who got their only win of a five-game road trip.
“This is unreal,” Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk said. “I think it’s our best effort we’ve had all year. Everybody was buzzing. Everybody was on their game. We really emptied the tanks to get a win tonight.”
David Perron scored, and Jordan Binnington made 24 saves for the Blues (32-17-7), who tied their longest stretch of the season without a win. They lost four straight Nov. 11-16.
“It’s not always pretty, right?” St. Louis defenseman Justin Faulk said. “Sometimes you get in these funks where you just need to kind of put your nose to the grindstone and just work. I think there’s no lack of talent, that’s for sure, in that room in making plays and executing as a group, but you kind of get into these funks once in a while and we’ve got to be able to see it through on the other side of that.
“… We had definitely had a better effort tonight than we did [in the] previous two games, I think. Not comfortable with it by any means, but it happens once in a while and we just need to find a way out of it by working hard.”
Stutzle gave the Senators a 1-0 lead on the power play at 11:35 of the first period when he backhanded a loose puck past a diving Binnington. It came after Perron turned the puck over in the Blues zone and was called for tripping Tkachuk.
“The first penalty, there’s no reason to make that play,” St. Louis coach Craig Berube said. “You’ve got a play where you can just make a simple play.”
Perron tied it 1-1 at 14:43 after Ryan O’Reilly fed him in the slot following an Ottawa turnover inside the blue line.
Norris put the Senators in front 2-1 on the power play at 1:24 of the second period with a one-timer from the right face-off circle that squirted under Binnington’s right arm and inside the left post.
Forsberg preserved the lead 58 seconds into the third period when he made a glove save on Vladimir Tarasenko‘s one-timer from low in the right circle.
“It was kind of luck there,” Forsberg said. “I don’t know really what happened. I heard a pass behind the net. Before I turned my head, I heard it go off his blade. I just got my glove out there.”
Tkachuk pushed the lead to 3-1 at 7:48 of the third with a wrist shot from the left face-off dot after Norris stole Ivan Barbashev‘s backhand pass in the Blues zone.
“We give up the third goal there, same thing,” Berube said. “We can’t make that play. Turn it over, it’s in our net.”
Alex Formenton scored into an empty net at 17:13 for the 4-1 final.
“I think it’s much like the Vegas game,” Senators coach D.J. Smith said, referring to the 2-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday. “We had everyone going. We rolled four lines. The [defensemen] and the goaltending continues to be great. When you get that kind of goaltending, you have a chance every night. I thought it was one of our better second periods in a long time, and we put a lot of miles on them.”
NOTES: Tkachuk led the Senators with five shots on goal and five takeaways in 15:15. … Ottawa forward Zach Sanford had one shot on goal and played 15:15 in his first game in St. Louis since being traded to the Senators on Sept. 26. Sanford played four seasons with the Blues, winning the Stanley Cup in 2019. … St. Louis forward Pavel Buchnevich (concussion protocol) left the game late in the third period, but Berube said he was fine when he was on the bench. … Perron has scored eight points (four goals, four assists) in his past seven games. … St. Louis forward Jordan Kyrou had his seven-game point streak end. It tied his NHL career high. … Blues forward Mackenzie MacEachern had two shots on goal and played 8:16 in his season debut.
