Giroux scores in OT as Senators rally to beat Predators 4-3

OTTAWA, Ontario — Claude Giroux scored 3:36 into overtime, and the Ottawa Senators rallied from three goals down to beat the Nashville Predators 4-3 on Monday night.

Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stutzle each had a goal and an assist, and Drake Batherson also scored for the Senators, who won for the fourth time in seven games (4-1-2). Mads Sogaard allowed three goals on 11 shots in the first period. Joonas Korpisalo stopped all 17 shots he faced the rest of the way to get the win.

In the extra period, Giroux scored on a one-timer from the left circle off a pass from Stutzle for his 15th of the season.

“It’s great to see how we responded,” Giroux said. “We didn’t change our game, we didn’t try to do too much, we just let the game come to us and when we had the chance, we were able to score. This one feels pretty good.”

Philip Tomasino had a goal and an assist, Michael McCarron and Yakov Trenin also scored, and Roman Josi had two assists for the Predators. Juuse Saros made 31 saves in Nashville's fourth loss in five games (1-3-1).

The Predators had an opportunity to end the game early in overtime when Denis Gurianov broke in with Josi on a two-man rush, but couldn’t even manage a shot. The Senators went back the other way and ended the game.

“I think you learn to close a game down when you’re not at your best or at least give yourself a chance to get a point,” Predators coach Andrew Brunette said. “Throughout the course of the season we gave away a lot of points where we got nothing out of it. So tonight, we were able to grind away and get a point."

Nashville scored three times in the first period to take the lead, and Ottawa tied it with three in the second.

“I think they just outplayed, outworked us, they were just the better team,” Josi said. “In the second we kind of got what we deserved. For some reason we didn’t play our game in the second.”

Nashville opened the scoring 8:26 into the game when Josi fired a shot from just inside center ice and it wrapped around and popped out front to McCarron who fired a shot past Sogaard.

Tomasino made it 2-0 when he won a race and roofed a puck over Sogaard with 3:30 left in the first, and Trenin extended the Predators’ lead to three goals when he caught Sogaard out of position with 1 minute left in the period.

That marked 10 straight goals allowed by Ottawa after they gave up seven unanswered goals in a 7-2 loss to the New York Rangers on Saturday night.

“I don’t know how the other guys felt, but after the first, I knew we were coming back,” said Stutzle. “Just the way we were talking in the room, just everybody stood up in the room and said ‘Hey guys, we’ve just got to do a better job and help our goalies out.’”

Batherson got the Senators on the scoreboard at 5:21 of the second as he settled a bouncing puck in front and beat Saros. It was his 17th of the season.

Stutzle pulled Ottawa within one at 9:20 when he scored his 11th, and Tkachuk tied it with his 21st with 2:50 remaining in the middle period after a faceoff win by Josh Norris.

“We showed our maturity from all the lessons that we’ve learned,” Tkachuk said. “In the past, it could’ve gotten away from us, but we stuck to it, stuck to our game and really emphasized doing it as a team versus trying to do it individually.”

Ottawa defenseman Travis Hamonic remained out with an upper-body injury, while Dominik Kubalik returned to the lineup after missing four games.

UP NEXT

Predators: Host Los Angeles on Wednesday night in their last game before All-Star break.

Senators: At Detroit on Wednesday in the their final game before All-Star break.