What a night for Ottawa hockey.
Both our teams pulled off something previously thought impossible tonight, with the Charge winning in regulation (more on that in the weekly recap), and the Sens defeating the first-place Colorado Avalanche, something they haven’t done in so long that I thought they’d forgotten they were even allowed.
It was a fantastic game. The Sens played extremely well, and yet it was entertaining from start to finish. Can’t really ask for more.
The first period went surprisingly well, considering the two teams playing. The Sens got an early powerplay, but their struggles with the man advantage continued and they didn’t really manage to get anything going.
They pretty much dominated possession, even when the game went back to even strength. Reimer barely had to do anything as the team in front of him played a really solid, if kind of boring, game.
Of course, possession can only get you so far, and the Sens weren’t playing with that much urgency. They were holding on to the puck in the first period but they didn’t get particularly close to scoring, even when they closed out the first 20 minutes with another unsuccessful powerplay.
It was, at this point, the kind of game that would have been really encouraging if the season were going any other way. Unfortunately, this year, we already know this team is great at puck possession and losing the goaltending battle every night. You can’t get complacent against a team like Colorado.
And, to their credit, they didn’t!
The second period was actually even better than the first. Early on, Nick Cousins picked up a stretch pass from Zub, got a breakaway, and roofed it. 1-0 Ottawa.
He’s kinda a goal scorer, eh?! pic.twitter.com/7OFhFLvTJm
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) January 29, 2026
Ottawa picked up the pace once they’d taken the lead. It was like they knew they’d need more than one goal and weren’t about to take the win for granted. They had multiple “how on earth did that not go in?” moments early in the second period. I’m sure they won’t regret not burying those chances, I said, fully expecting them to regret not burying those chances very soon.
They regretted not burying those chances about ten minutes after Cousins’s goal, when Reimer let in an absolute stinker – just a goal that never should have gone in under any circumstances – against former Senator Parker Kelly. 1-1.
I know we were all thinking the same thing when that goal went in: great, here we go again. It was fun seeing the Sens play well while it lasted. Now the goals against have started and we won’t be able to keep up. We were all being dramatic, because the Sens got their lead back immediately. Like, less than 20 seconds later.
It was Greig, of course, because apparently Ridly Greig just can’t stop scoring. It was also a very weird goal to watch for those of us who had two screens going tonight, because it happened at pretty much the exact same moment that the Ottawa Charge tied their game… also with a goal from #71. I don’t know what that means, but it’s such a weird coincidence that I feel like I have to mention it. 2-1 Ottawa.
Ridly said “tie game? I THINK NOT!” 🤠pic.twitter.com/BLYSTgmqQt
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) January 29, 2026
The Sens absolutely dominated the first two periods of the game. They deserved to be ahead by more than two goals by the time the buzzer sounded. Again, nobody who has watched this team this season was feeling particularly good going into the third period.
The Sens built on their lead early in the third period thanks to an absolutely nasty wrist shot from Giroux. 3-1 Ottawa.
No. 🔟 on the year for G💰#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/L5ik907Qkx
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) January 29, 2026
Sanderson also made a great defensive play on Makar soon after that goal.
Unfortunately, you can’t just count on being able to hold the Colorado Avalanche to one goal, and the Avalanche made sure to remind us all of that very soon after going down 3-1. Nichuskin walked right around the Sens’ defenders to bring his team back within one goal. 3-2 Ottawa.
The Sens… did not look good after the Nichuskin goal. They completely collapsed around their net. It was like the Avalanche had finally woken up, and the Sens had just remembered that they’re not supposed to beat this team that easily.
They held on, though, shockingly. The goaltending held up, and the team managed to clear the zone often enough. They survived the onslaught and then managed a few scoring chances of their own, but it felt like they were desperately trying to run out the clock or build themselves more of a cushion before the inevitable happened.
Zetterlund got a breakaway with just over eight minutes on the clock and missed, and man, he’s been finishing his chances a lot more lately but that’s got to be one of the more frustrating misses he’s had just because of the context.
They were clinging to this game by their fingertips, playing like they were defending a one goal lead in the final minute of the game with an extra skater on for the other team, except that there were many, many minutes left in this one, and the Colorado netminder was tragically still present.
The shot clock was shockingly kind to the Sens at this point, but it didn’t tell the full story at all. Even if those shots were not hitting the net, there were certainly many shot attempts happening, and the Sens were now chasing the play just as much as the Avs had been for most of the game.
Colorado pulled their goaltender with just under four minutes left in the game. The Sens quickly managed to get the puck into the offensive zone with the net empty, but several players missed the net, and we had to do a defensive zone faceoff with more than two minutes left on the clock. Thankfully, Tkachuk buried an empty netter before we could get too stressed. 4-2 Ottawa.
Stay ’til the end for the Tkaptain and Cuzzy’s reaction 😂#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/2sOkntb42I
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) January 29, 2026
There was still plenty of time for the Avalanche to score two goals, but Tim Stützle made sure that didn’t happen. He skated the puck right into the empty net. 5-2 Ottawa.
That score would hold for the rest of the game. Somehow, they held on and pulled off a much-deserved win.
Notable PerformancesI thought Zub had a very good game. That pass on the first goal was amazing.Tim Stützle was flying out there. Didn’t score on a goalie, but had some great chances.Ridly Greig also had a great game. I felt like I noticed him every time he was on the ice, in a good way.Shane Pinto wasn’t super noticeable offensively, but had the highest TOI of all the forwards and did a fantastic job of shutting down the Avs’ offense.This is not a notable performance but shoutout to the entire team for taking 0 penalties all game. Never would have thought they could do it.Gameflow
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