Senators frustrated to earn only a point in 4-3 shootout loss to Blues

OTTAWA – The Ottawa Senators can only hope they didn’t lose more than just a point Tuesday night.

Patrik Berglund scored in the 11th round of the shootout as the St. Louis Blues defeated the Senators 4-3.

Trailing 3-0, Ottawa scored three unanswered goals to force overtime, including a buzzer-beater by Jean-Gabriel Pageau. While the Senators were thankful for the single point, they still felt they let one slip away with yet another slow start.

“At the end we gave ourselves the chance to get it, but I didn’t think we played good enough from the start,” said captain Erik Karlsson. “We played a better team from 40 minutes and in and that was the difference.

“We got lucky (Tuesday) with two late goals, especially the last one. Unfortunately we put ourselves through that situation.”

More disturbing could be the loss of goaltender Craig Anderson, who made 28 saves on 31 shots, but was forced to leave the game at the 13:41 mark of the second period with a lower-body injury. Anderson will be re-evaluated Wednesday.

Andrew Hammond stopped 17 shots in relief of Anderson and made a number of huge saves to keep the Senators in the game. It was Hammond’s first appearance since Feb. 11.

“It’s always tough coming off the bench, but felt like I was prepared for it,” said Hammond. “I’ve been working hard in practice lately and even though I haven’t necessarily been playing in the games I’ve been doing everything I can to be ready. I learned the lesson last year that anything can happen so I felt like I was ready for the situation.”

Ryan Dzingel also scored for Ottawa (30-27-7), which is five points out of a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Jaden Schwartz, with a goal and two assists, led the Blues (37-20-9), while Dmitrij Jaskin and Vladimir Tarasenko also scored. Jake Allen stopped 40 shots.

Allen admitted this was definitely one of the stranger shootouts he’s been involved in.

“That’s probably the longest I’ve been without a goal on either side. Usually if they go that long there’s a couple goals in between, but it’s the way it goes. Sometimes you can’t stop any and sometimes you can stop them all.”

Trailing 3-1 the Senators had a strong third period.

Hammond stoned Tarasenko and Berglund and then Pageau had his first goal of the goal with 2:41 remaining in regulation. He banked a shot off Allen from behind the goal line.

“The second goal was my fault,” said Allen. “That can’t go in at this time of year.”

Pageau then forced extra time, scoring with one second left on the clock for a 3-3 tie.

“It was a good feeling, but it’s unfortunate that we didn’t get out with the two points,” said Pageau. “We battled until the end, but at least we got one.”

Down 2-0 the Senators showed a little life early in the second as Mike Hoffman had a couple great chances, but was unable to beat Allen.

St. Louis made it 3-0 with its second power-play goal of the game as Tarasenko ripped a shot past Anderson near the midway point of the second.

Ottawa finally managed to get on the board at 12:32 of the second as Dzingel grabbed a loose puck out front to beat Allen.

Shortly after Anderson was injured and left the game.

Once again the Senators had an awful start as they were down 2-0 after 20 minutes and outshot 19-10. Ottawa is now 12-25-6 when allowing the first goal.

Jaskin opened the scoring as he won a battle in front and was able to bang one past Anderson at 3:36.

Schwartz made it 2-0 on the power play midway through the period as he grabbed a rebound out front and beat Anderson low stick side.

Notes: Senators C Kyle Turris will be out indefinitely with a high ankle sprain. D Patrick Wiercioch was a healthy scratch. The Blues are without G Brian Elliott (lower body), Steve Ott (hamstring), Alexander Steen (upper body) and Jori Lehtera (upper body). D Robert Bortuzzo was a healthy scratch.