Ottawa Senators extinguish Calgary Flames

The Ottawa Senators forged a remarkable late comeback to take down the Calgary Flames in historic fashion at the Canadian Tire Centre on Monday night.

With Anton Forsberg out for the next two or three months after tearing his MCL in both knees and Cam Talbot still sidelined with a groin injury, 2019 second-round draft selection Mads Søgaard made his third career NHL start.

Søgaard was tested early, fighting off the Flames offensive attack.

Seven minutes into the first period, Brady Tkachuk scored the opening goal of the game off a breakaway rush against Flames netminder Jacon Markstrom.

The opening marker gave the Senators captain 21 goals on the season and four in his last five games.

With the Senators on the man advantage, Derrick Brassard got penalized for holding, nullifying Ottawa’s man advantage.

Senators fans were not pleased. The booing inside the Canadian Tire Centre was relentless.

It would only get louder as the Flames on the ensuing powerplay would strike to even the game at one.

Dillon Dube would get the equalizer with a tip out front off a blistering shot from the blue line by defenceman Noah Hanifin.

The Senators weren’t alone in their dismay of the officiating, as both teams seemingly were frustrated with the officials in the first period, resulting in many large hits and scrums after every whistle.

As the second period began, the Senators had no response to the Flames relentless offensive attack.

Søgaard tried his best to keep it tied for his club, but ultimately Ottawa would succumb to Calgary’s unrelenting pressure.

Six minutes into the second period, as the Flames powerplay came to an end, Tyler Toffoli along the left hashmark fired a shot low glove side past Søgaard to give Calgary its first lead of the night.

As the second period came to a close, it looked as if the Senators had no chance to claw their way back into the game.

The Flames after 40 minutes of play were outshooting the Senators by a preposterous amount and were dominating the play. The Flames had 27 shots and the Senators only had 11.

Things would only get worse for the Senators in the third period, as the Flames early on would extend their lead to a two-goal advantage.

Dube would strike for the second time in the game, beating Søgaard five-hole, as a defensive breakdown left Senator defenceman Thomas Chabot exposed and unable to properly defend.

With less than five minutes remaining in the game, many spectators began to head for the exits, not knowing the history that was about to take place.

With the net empty with less than three minutes remaining in the game, Drake Batherson put home the rebound off a Tim Stützle shot to cut the deficit to one.

Suddenly the Senators had life.

Less than a minute later, superstar Alex DeBrincat unloaded a top-shelf one-time blast over the right shoulder of Markstrom to even the game at three.

The Canadian Tire Centre faithful erupted as if they had just won the lottery.

In some ways, they had. This game was like none other in Senators history.

The Senators had remarkably clawed their way back to tie the game with two goals in the final 120 seconds, and the remaining fans inside the Canadian Tire Centre had the building shaking with jubilation.

After the Flames dominated nearly 58 minutes of this game, the Sens pulled off the impossible and forced overtime.

In the extra frame, it only took 90 seconds for the Senators to complete the comeback and as well make history.

Less than two minutes into the overtime period, DeBrincat fed Stützle through the neutral zone, using his speed to blow past Flames defender Mackenzie Weegar, and tucked in the overtime game-winning goal under the blocker of Markstrom.

The Senators mobbed Stützle in the corner as the Ottawa goal horn blared.

With Stützle’s winning goal, the Senators had completed their latest comeback victory in franchise history.

Tim Stützle had four points, including the game-winning goal. Søgaard made 34 saves en route to his second career NHL victory, and DeBrincat extended his point streak to four straight games.

The Senators will look to make it two straight wins on Tuesday night against the Islanders in New York.