Senators Erupt for Five Goals, Bury Sharks on Halloween

Ottawa turned a tied game into a rout, scoring four unanswered goals across the second and third periods to beat San Jose 5-1 on October 31. Dylan Cozens, Shane Pinto, and Tim Stützle each posted a goal and an assist, while Samuel Ersson was nearly untouchable, stopping 21 of 22 shots.

The game looked like it might be a contest for all of about two and a half minutes. Cozens opened the scoring at 13:25 of the first, wiring a wrist shot past Alex Nedeljkovic with Stützle and Artem Zub picking up the assists — the score-margin shift from 0 to -1 proved to be the turning point the Senators never relinquished. San Jose answered quickly, with Michael Misa tying it at 16:06 on a wrist shot set up by Jacob Trouba and Kiefer Sherwood. Heading into the first intermission at 1-1, there was at least a pulse in this one.

The second period is where Ottawa buried it. Drake Batherson restored the lead at 5:04, converting a wrist shot off feeds from Philip Tomasino and Thomas Chabot for his ninth of the season. Less than six minutes later, Stützle made it 3-1 at 10:54 — his ninth goal as well — with Sanderson and Cozens assisting. Then, just 83 seconds after that, Ridly Greig added a backhand at 12:17, assisted by Pinto, to push it to 4-1. Three goals in under eight minutes of the second period effectively ended any drama. Nedeljkovic finished with 30 saves on 34 shots, which looks like a respectable number until you remember the Senators were up four goals and managing the game for most of the third.

Pinto capped it with his fifth of the season at 17:30 of the third — a wrist shot, Sanderson picking up his second assist of the night. Jake Sanderson's two-assist performance is worth noting; the defenseman appears to be a quiet engine in Ottawa's offense, and the Senators' ability to spread production across their lineup — six different goal scorers, multiple contributors up and down the roster — looks like a genuine strength rather than a one-line show. The news block notes Ottawa entered this game on a five-game road trip that opened with a loss to Vegas, so a dominant road win is exactly the kind of response you want to see. San Jose, meanwhile, got very little to build on here. This was a thorough beating.