Ottawa Senators goaltender Mads Sogaard makes a save against Anaheim Ducks right wing Jakob Silfverberg during the second period at Honda Center. The Ducks won 2-1 on March 6, 2024.Kiyoshi Mio/Reuters
Alex Killorn scored the tiebreaking goal on a pass from rookie Olen Zellweger early in the third period of the Anaheim Ducks’ third victory in four games, 2-1 over the Ottawa Senators on Wednesday night.
Ryan Strome also scored and Lukas Dostal made 29 saves for the Ducks in a meeting of two long-struggling franchises already playing out the string in seasons that will end in the extension of two playoff droughts stretching longer than a half-decade apiece.
Mark Kastelic scored and Mads Sogaard stopped 14 shots for the Senators. They lost their fifth straight overall in the opener of a three-game California swing.
Ottawa had two golden chances to tie it in the final minute, but Dostal stopped Tim Stutzle’s impressive drive to the net and quickly slid over to block Jakob Chychrun’s rebound shot. Dostal had 18 saves in the third period, extending his impressive three-game stretch to 110 saves on 116 shots.
The depleted Ducks were without three of their top four scorers thanks to injuries and trades. They put AHL forwards Pavol Regenda and Glenn Gawdin into their lineup a few hours after trading Adam Henrique and Sam Carrick to Edmonton.
Anaheim also was without two-time All-Star forward Troy Terry, who was scratched 15 minutes before faceoff with an upper-body injury. The Ducks already were playing without injured forwards Mason McTavish, Leo Carlsson and Trevor Zegras, while goalie John Gibson has sat out three straight games during his usual spring stint on the trade block.
Ottawa went ahead just 2:44 in on a deflected goal for Arizona native Kastelic. Strome tied it early in the second, deflecting his 10th goal of the season off Jake Sanderson’s leg.
The Ducks went ahead when Zellweger smartly found Killorn for a tip goal, his 10th of the season and his second in two games. Zellweger’s assist was the second in seven NHL games for the prized 20-year-old defenceman, a key component of Anaheim’s rebuilding plans.
The Ducks are finishing up their sixth consecutive non-playoff season, while the Senators will miss the post-season for the seventh straight season. Despite the NHL’s expansion to 32 teams necessarily leading to more markets being shut out of the playoff experience, commissioner Gary Bettman said before the game that his league has no interest in expanding its playoff format, as the NBA did in 2020.
“We like what we have, and we don’t want to dilute either the regular season or the playoffs,” Bettman said.
Bettman also said Anaheim is likely to get its first All-Star weekend or an outdoor game in a few years when the OCVibe entertainment complex is fully operational on the land surrounding Honda Center. Major construction began on the sprawling project last year, with a targeted completion date of 2028.
Ducks forward Jakob Silfverberg played in his 800th NHL game. The Senators drafted Silfverberg in the second round in 2009 and traded him to Anaheim in July 2013, just 48 games into his career.
Up next
Senators: At Los Angeles on Thursday night.
Ducks: Host Dallas on Friday night.