Senators lose to Stars in overtime

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DALLAS — This effort wasn’t completely pointless for the Ottawa Senators.

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The Senators kicked off their annual Fathers Trip with a good effort, but the result was the same as the club dropped a 4-3 overtime decision to the Dallas Stars on Thursday night at American Airlines Center.

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Dallas’ Tyler Seguin was left alone and scored with only 29 seconds left in the extra period to secure the win for the Stars. The Senators have points in five of their last seven games, but they will leave feeling that they let one slip away.

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Coming off an ugly 5-2 loss to the Los Angeles Kings at the Canadian Tire Centre, the Senators were determined to find a way to bounce back. The Stars are a tough test. They’re one of the NHL’s best teams and the club had to find a way to measure up with a strong effort.

Defenceman Travis Hamonic and Thomas Chabot did the scoring along with forward Derick Brassard. The Senators had a tough time creating anything in the third period, but goaltender Anton Forsberg wasn’t at his best and that didn’t help matters.

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The Senators scored a 4-2 victory over the Stars at home on Oct. 24. Forsberg didn’t face the Stars in that game. That was the only start Magnus Hellberg made with Ottawa before the Seattle Kraken picked him up on waivers.

The Senators came into this game with three straight victories over the Stars. The club went into this visit to Dallas trailing the Tampa Bay Lightning by 10 points for the final wildcard spot in the East and the Senators need wins to have a realistic shot at the playoffs.

Coach D.J. Smith wanted to see his club refocus and the Senators came into this game with a 4-2-0 record in their last six games.

“You lose your focus for one second in this league, and you see it at the end of games when teams pile on with goals, so you can’t drop your guard for one second because the league’s too good,” Smith said before the game.

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“Win or lose, you’ve got to turn the page and go again. This team is really good team, they’re playing as well as anybody in the league and this is a really good game for us.”

Nils Lundqvist tied the game 3-3 with a shot from the point that Forsberg couldn’t get a handle on with 5:07 left in the game. That was another weak one on Forsberg as it made its way through his arm and body, but at that point the Senators were being outshot 12-1 in the third.

Hamonic gave the Senators the lead only 1:27 into the third. Winger Alex DeBrincat threw a pass to the front of the net and Hamonic was able to get his stick on it to give the club its first lead of the game. That was Hamonic’s third of the season and first in 13 games.

Making his first career start against the Senators, Dallas starter Jake Oettinger was the only reason the Stars were still in this one going to the third. The Senators outshot Dallas 27-16, completely dominated and were tied 2-2 heading heading to the final frame.

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It didn’t help that the club wasn’t able to capitalize on two opportunities on the power play, but the Senators were creating chances and winning the battles for loose pucks. The Senators were playing with the pace necessary to keep the Stars at bay.

Smith opted not to pull Forsberg after the second goal and the patience paid off. He made the stops necessary but wasn’t tested a whole lot after after the first six minutes of the first. That’s exactly what the Senators needed.

Give the Senators credit, they got up off the mat and erased a two-goal deficit to tie up 2-2 after 20 minutes. Chabot fired a shot from the point that bounced off Dallas’ Luke Glendenning as it changed direction and beat Oettinger.

That was Chabot’s sixth of the season and couldn’t have come at a better time with only 1:13 left in the period.

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Brassard got the Senators on the board by firing a blast by Oettinger from the slot that he had no chance of stopping. That was Brassard’s fourth of the season, and it’s further proof that he has been a perfect fit with this team.

Before the game, the Senators talked a lot about getting off to a better start.

Only 6:55 into the game, the Senators found themselves in the same hole they faced against the Kings. Trailing 2-0, the Senators needed Forsberg to make a save because Miro Heiskanen’s second of the game was horrid.

He fired a shot from low in the left circle that never should have found its way through Forsberg, but it did. Earlier, Heiskanen opened the scoring by a firing a blast by Forsberg on the glove side after the club lost the faceoff in its own zone at 5:07.

The Senators will close out this road trip Saturday against the Nashville Predators with 1:30 p.m. ET puck drop.

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/sungarrioch