Cozens and Batherson Each Score Twice In Senators' 7-1 Win In Washington

The Ottawa Senators played a nearly perfect road game in Washington on Saturday night, defeating the Capitals, 7-1. Dylan Cozens and Drake Batherson each had two goals and an assist for the Sens, who outshot the Capitals ___. Shane Pinto scored his NHL-leading 8th goal while Nick Cousins and Thomas Chabot chipped in with singles.

As Alex Ovechkin celebrated his 1500th game, there wasn’t much else for the Caps to celebrate.

For a change of pace, we provided live game notes, updates and commentary here throughout the game. Here’s how the evening went for the Senators in Washington.

First Period

1:03: Claude Giroux had a fantastic chance in the first minute of the game on a nice centering pass. It looked like he had Lindgren beaten, but he lost control of the puck at the end of his deke.

Injury: Shortly thereafter, Matt Roy left the game trailing a streak of blood across the ice after being struck in the face by a puck as David Perron tried to dump it in. The Capitals’ ice crew needed several minutes to scrape up the blood trail.

1:58: Ottawa GOAL – From the right point, Artem Zub stepped up and made a hard pass to the middle that Dylan Cozens redirected up over Lindgren’s shoulder. Cozens’ fifth goal of the season.

3:05: Ottawa Penalty – Matinpalo was penalized for an obvious hold, so the much-maligned penalty kill went to work. Ovechkin got an immediate chance.

Injury: During the PK, Dylan Strome was helped off the ice after crashing into the end boards with the complete weight of Chychrun crashing in behind him.

Lindgren made a huge stop on Stützle in close as the Senators killed off the penalty. The Capitals still hadn’t registered a shot, five minutes in.

6:11: A patched-up Roy returned to play for the Capitals. The long ice cleanup actually gave the medical staff extra time to stitch him up, so he missed less game action.

7:42: Washington Penalty – Tom Wilson took a tripping penalty on a near breakaway for Dylan Cozens. That was awfully close to being penalty-shot worthy. The Sens did nothing on the ensuing power play.

Fabian Zetterlund seemed to have some good jump that night. After just nine shifts on Thursday night, he was certainly well-rested.

12:00: Lindgren made a great glove save on Batherson after a nice passing play between Cozens—who dug the puck loose—and Tim Stützle. I knew there had been a lot of criticism about having Cozens on the top line, but I actually liked having a digger alongside two skill guys. He did the gritty work that the stars didn’t necessarily thrive at.

12:03: Strome returned to action after he’d been helped off the ice by two teammates nine minutes earlier.

14:17: Another missed chance. Greig set up Perron perfectly in the slot, but Lindgren stopped him. As Garry Galley pointed out, this thing could have been 3–0 Ottawa without any trouble. The Capitals had only three shots so far. A great road start for the Sens.

Strome came out for a second shift, but this one lasted only eight seconds.

16:30: Tom Wilson clobbered Ridly Greig with a big hit down below the goal line. Tyler Kleven immediately responded by clobbering Ryan Leonard. Both good hits. The Sens had the perfect response. Your big guy went after a smaller skill guy. We did the same. MacDermid and Dubois went off with offsetting roughing minors.

In the ensuing 4-on-4, Wilson got a breakaway but appeared to run out of room before he could complete his deke. Linus Ullmark had his pad in perfect position anyway.

After one period, the Senators led the Capitals 1–0 and outshot them 8–4. The Sens crushed it in the faceoffs, going 13/20. Travis Green would have been thrilled with that start. Yes, the Capitals had played the night before, so this was kind of an ambush game. But fatigue from a back-to-back didn’t usually show up until the third, so that boded well for the Senators.

The Capitals announced Strome was done for the evening.

Second Period

2:10: Cozens tipped a puck up to Batherson for a 2-on-1. He got it to Stützle, but the puck started bouncing on him, so Stützle didn’t get a clean chance.

3:27: Ottawa Goal – Shane Pinto appeared to score his NHL-leading 8th goal of the season. He drove hard to the net, and Jakob Chychrun pushed him into Lindgren. It should have been a good goal, but it was a long review. The first was to see if the puck crossed the line—it did. The Capitals had time to check for goalie interference, but then they called a timeout. Then they called for a challenge for goalie interference. What a waste of time. Good for the referees and the eyes in Toronto—they got it right. The Capitals were penalized, and the Sens were now up 2–0.

4:27: Ottawa Goal – Cozens scored on the power play, his sixth goal of the season. It was a fabulous pass from Batherson, who bought time down low, drew defenders toward him, while Cozens sneaked in behind him, took the Batherson pass, and made a great move to beat Lindgren. Sens led 3–0.

6:21: Ottawa Goal – Cozens got behind everyone, took an easy stretch pass from Stützle for a breakaway, and beat Lindgren with a forehand–backhand move upstairs. Sens led 4–0.

6:47: Zetterlund beat Lindgren but put it off the crossbar and over the glass. That guy needed a break.

11:04: Lapierre got a nice chance after Kleven lost track of the puck in his feet. His backhand didn’t give Ullmark too much trouble. Only the Caps’ fourth shot of the game.

11:20: Offsetting Minors – Duhaime for slashing, Cozens for embellishment. It wasn’t much of a dive; Cozens just dropped to a knee for a moment.

12:29: Ottawa Penalty – Washington got a power play after a hooking call on Pinto.

14:15: Chychrun gave Ullmark a healthy whack on the trapper after he’d already covered up the puck. The Sens expressed disapproval to their former teammate.

16:43: Cozens ripped one from the high slot that went off the post. That would have been a hat trick. Man, that Norris deal looked better and better by the day.

Chabot got another chance and appeared to have Lindgren down and out, but his backhand was blocked by either Lindgren or Greig, who was also in his shooting lane.

19:28: A melee broke out behind the Washington net as Lindgren didn’t like Greig coming into his space late. Everyone went off on Greig. Lindgren was right in there, so Ullmark skated the length of the ice to join the fray. But for some reason, the referee pulled Ullmark out, leaving the Capitals a man up in the scrum. After taking a few, Greig got a good solid punch to the face in on Lindgren.

When the smoke cleared, the Sens wound up with a power play that carried into the third.

After 40 minutes, it was a near-perfect road game. Not only did the Senators lead 4–0, but they’d outshot the Capitals 19–6.

Third Period

0:55: Ottawa Goal – Still on the power play, Lindgren made a fantastic glove save on a hard shot by Cozens, but he failed to catch it, so the puck bounced around, and Batherson crammed in the rebound. 5–0 Ottawa. With 18 minutes left at home, this was about the time in the game when Washington might do some venting and try to leave a mark in a game that was lost. It was good that MacDermid had dressed for this one.

6:04: Washington Goal – With heavy traffic in front of Ullmark, Van Riemsdyk’s backhander got Washington on the board. Sens still led 5–1.

9:19: Washington Penalty – Sourdif went off for slashing the stick out of Zetterlund’s hands. The Sens briefly killed time and played keep-away during the delayed penalty. They could have kept it going a lot longer if they’d wanted.

9:47: Ottawa Goal – Thomas Chabot’s low shot from the point made it through a huge crowd, just inside the post. That made it 6–1 Ottawa. That should have stomped out any hope of a Capitals comeback that night.

Pinto, the NHL’s leading goal scorer, took a hard and super-obvious hack on the hands from Roy. That was always called. But it was 6–1, so it was legal now.

14:22: Ottawa Goal – Batherson got his second goal of the night and his 300th point. He’s the 15th Senator to hit that plateau. He tried to center a pass to the front of the net, but the puck hit a skate out front and bounced back to him. By this point, Lindgren had come off the post, and Batherson had all the room he needed to bury it. 7–1 Ottawa. The rout was complete.

The Senators even their record at .500 (4-4-1)and will be back home on Monday night (7:30pm on Prime), hosting the Boston Bruins.

Cozens and Batherson Each Score Twice In Senators’ 7-1 Win In Washington

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