There isn’t much that the Ottawa Senators and Carolina Hurricanes have in common with their respective seasons’ journeys.
But heading into Sunday night’s game in Ottawa, they both feel quite good.
On Saturday, both teams went beyond the overtime limit and emerged victorious.
The latter one transpired when the Hurricanes overcame a three-goal deficit to win 5-4 in overtime in Toronto. In just his third game with Carolina, Jake Guentzel scored in the shootout to give the squad an additional point.
“It’s not the ideal method, but in the end, you’ll win the game,” Hurricanes head coach Rod Brind’Amour remarked. “We obviously dug in and had a good kind of finish.”
On a goal from captain Brady Tkachuk in the afternoon, Ottawa defeated the New York Islanders 4–3 in overtime on the road. With that goal, Tkachuk completed a hat trick and the Senators won three straight games.
“Getting that extra point is kind of rewarding, so it’s nice to win those games,” interim Ottawa coach Jacques Martin said. “We’ve played much better defensively as far as chances against the last three games, and I think the results have shown.”
After receiving such results, senators usually consider their next course of action.
“It was a great comeback for our team; we’ll take it and build on it for (Sunday),” Tkachuk stated.
Martin expressed his satisfaction with the way the positive energy has been building since the team’s 0–6–1 run before last week.
“It shows you have to stick with it and be composed and go right to the end,” he stated.
On Saturday, Martin appeared to energise the Senators with his in-game line adjustments.
Martin remarked, “I felt that our D gave us a strong game too.” “I thought we played our gap much better against this team, and it made it a bit more difficult to enter our zone.”
Guentzel had a range of situations on Saturday for Carolina. In overtime, he was given a cutting penalty and was eventually up the shootout hero
“He’s a great player and we know it,” Brind’Amour said. “It’s going to take some time for these guys to just kind of feel comfortable. … But I think it will only get better.”
The Hurricanes will have goalie Frederik Andersen in net on Sunday. He’s 3-0-0 since returning from an absence of more than four months due to blood-clotting issues, but this will be his first road assignment since Nov. 2.
As always with games on back-to-back days, there could be lineup adjustments.
The Hurricanes already had one lineup shift this weekend. They’ll play their second game in a row without forward Teuvo Teravainen, who has 21 goals in 66 games.
The Senators will check on defenseman Jake Sanderson, who was helped off the ice in the third period Saturday but returned to action. He has played in 62 of Ottawa’s 65 games.
Carolina has won both meetings with the Senators this season. Those results were 5-3 in the Hurricanes’ season opener at home on Oct. 11 and then 4-1 on Dec. 12 in Ottawa.
Only Sebastian Aho had more than one goal in those games combined for Carolina, scoring twice in the second matchup.
