Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk says his team has a foundation in place after a disciplined win in its home opener.
Tkachuk and Jakob Chychrun both scored twice as the Senators downed the Philadelphia Flyers 5-2 in front of a sold-out crowd of 20,011 at Canadian Tire Centre.
The victory came off a team effort, including a solid 19-save performance from Anton Forsberg. Jake Sanderson also scored.
“It’s huge,” Tkachuk said of getting the first win. “Something to build on and we’re right back at it tomorrow, so you can’t really focus on (Saturday) much longer because we’ve got a wagon coming in tomorrow so you’ve got to be ready for that and that task. We just have to keep building on it.”
Special teams were key for Ottawa (1-1-0). The Senators scored three power-play goals and went 1-for-8 in penalty killing, with the Flyers lone goal coming on a two-man advantage.
“I think the discipline, the stick penalties and clearly, in the first period we were a little bit excited there, but you can’t take those,” said Senators coach D.J. Smith. “As the year goes on you’re really going to wear your guys out and you’re giving the other team an opportunity.”
Flyers coach John Tortorella struggled to find positives in the loss.
"We're not going to panic, but our penalty kill, our power play, our offence, our defence, we were outplayed in all categories (Saturday),” Tortorella said. “We'll look at the tape and dust ourselves off and get ready for a game on Tuesday."
Travis Konecny and Cam York scored and Carter Hart stopped 26 shots for the Flyers (1-1-0).
Ottawa got the start it needed, jumping out to a 2-1 lead on two first-period goals from Chychrun.
Zack MacEwen found Chychrun to open the scoring two minutes into the game. Midway through the period, Vladimir Tarasenko made a no-look pass to Chychrun in the right circle, and he beat Hart high stick side for the Senators' first power-play goal of the game.
“We defended a lot better and when we defend well it leads to offence,” said Chychrun. “That’s really kind of what we wanted to get back on track here today is kind of limiting their chances and we know it’s going to create chances for us off the rush.”
The Flyers cut the lead in half late in the period on a two-man advantage, with Konecky picking up a rebound in front to bury his third of the season.
Sanderson made it 3-1 at 16:12 of the second period, beating Hart with a one-timer on the power play, But the Flyers came right back, scoring 18 seconds later with York taking a puck off the half wall to beat Forsberg.
With 5.1 seconds remaining in the second Claude Giroux stripped Travis Sanheim along the boards and fed Tkachuk for his first of the season.
“I played that 2-on-1, was able to intercept it, and then when I went to spin up ice, Tkachuk kind of spun away, so I thought I had more time, and (Giroux) kind of snuck in behind me and made a good play,” said Sanheim. “That's something I've got to bear down on in the last 10 seconds of the period. I've just got to clear the puck."
Ottawa put the game away in the third, when Giroux found Tkachuk on the doorstep for the captain's second of the night.
“Everybody contributed,” Tkachuk said. “There’s a lot of players that played awesome tonight and that’s kind of what we needed for us as a team and of course it helped with the atmosphere that the fans provided and we’re going to need that all year.”
Giroux was recognized before the game for hitting the 1,000-point mark last season. He spent 15 seasons with the Flyers after being drafted 22nd overall in 2006.
“You want to enjoy it but at the same time you’re trying not to enjoy it so you can focus on the game," he said. "It was obviously special for it to happen when the Flyers are here. Both organizations made it pretty special so that was good, but definitely took myself a while to get going.”
Celebrations began during staff and player introductions and Daniel Alfredsson was on the bench with Smith and company. The Senators announced Friday the former captain would be joining the organization, but an official title has yet to be announced.
Fans also welcomed anthem singer Lyndon Slewidge back to the Canadian Tire Centre. Slewidge had been the Senators official anthem singer between 1994 and 2016 until a strange parting of ways.
Welcoming Slewidge back is just one of the many fences that has been mended since Michael Andlauer took over ownership of the organization.
NOTES: Josh Norris missed his second straight game. Former Flyers RW Zack MacEwen returned to the lineup after missing Ottawa’s season opener.
UP NEXT: The Senators will host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Sunday night, while the Flyers will host the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night.
Lisa Wallace, The Canadian Press
