OTTAWA – The Ottawa Senators provided plenty of entertainment in their home opener Tuesday night with a 7-5 win over the Boston Bruins.
Mark Kastelic’s first of the season in the second period held up as the winner, but the fun started before the puck even dropped.
Things got underway with former Ottawa captain Daniel Alfredsson on hand for the ceremonial puck drop sending the sellout crowd into a frenzy and the noise grew as the newly acquired Claude Giroux, who calls Ottawa home, opened the scoring in the opening minutes of the game.
All four lines contributed for the Senators. Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson and Tim Stutzle each had a goal and two assists. Shane Pinto and Artem Zub also scored for Ottawa (1-2-0).
Coming into the home opener, Ottawa had only scored three goals through its first two games. Anton Forsberg stopped 26 shots.
David Pastrnak and Patrice Bergeron led the way for the Bruins (3-1-0) with a goal and two assists each. David Krejci, Nick Foligno and A.J. Greer also scored. Jeremy Swayman made 26 saves.
Leading 6-5, Zub added some security midway through the third when he picked up his own rebound earning a deafening ovation from the 19, 811 on hand.
Krejci and Greer scored in a span of 62 seconds to tie the game 3-3 by the two-minute mark of the second period.
Ottawa went on to score three goals to make it 6-3. Pinto made the most of a two-on-one to have a wide-open net. The Senators then took advantage of some poor defensive coverage by the Bruins with Stutzle picking up his first of the season when he was left alone out front. Anton Stralman then had a brutal giveaway behind his net allowing Austin Watson to feed Kastelic out front.
But the Bruins came back with another pair of goals to make it 6-5 by the end of the period. Foligno buried a rebound by crashing to the net and with 14.5 seconds remaining in the period Pastrnak connected for a power-play goal.
Ottawa couldn’t have asked for a better start. Giroux scored his first with the Senators in the opening minutes of the game and two minutes later Stutzle fed a cross-ice pass to Tkachuk for his second of the season.
Batherson had a goal called back midway through the period due to goaltender interference, but got it back a couple minutes later when Tkachuk found him out front.
Bergeron banged in a Pastrnak rebound to make it 3-1 late in the first period.
INTERESTING FACT
Tuesday’s opener marked the Senators debut for five new players, but for Claude Giroux, who signed as a free agent, it was a homecoming of sorts as the 34-year-old spent part of his adolescence in Ottawa and returns here each summer.
NOTES
The Senators made one change to their lineup Tuesday as Nick Holden replaced Nikita Zaitsev. Boston’s Anton Stralman made his season debut Tuesday. The defenceman is still dealing with visa issues in the United States, but they were not a factor for him playing in Canada.
UP NEXT
The Senators have Wednesday off before hosting the Washington Capitals on Thursday in the second of a five-game homestand. Boston will return home and host the Anaheim Ducks Thursday.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 18, 2022.
