THE BREAKDOWN: Senators head into a long off-season with victory over Bruins.
The Senators closed out what’s been an awful year on a positive note with a 3-1 win over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night at the TD Garden.
It felt appropriate for the Ottawa Senators to cross the finish line of a long season in the home of the Boston Marathon.
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The Senators closed out what’s been an awful year on a positive note with a 3-1 win over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday night at the TD Garden, with Anton Forsberg making 34 stops to steal the two points.
Now, after missing the playoffs for the seventh straight year, the Senators will gather at the Canadian Tire Centre for exit meetings and another lengthy summer.
Winger Jiri Smejkal, suiting up for his 20th game of the season after being called up from the club’s American Hockey League affiliate in Belleville, scored his first NHL goal and Jakob Chychrun also chipped in. Artem Zub put it away into an empty net.
The referee waved it off at first when Smejkal put it through Linus Ullmark’s legs at 10:03 of the second to open the scoring, but it was ruled a goal.
“I thought I saw it behind the line,” Smejkal said. “It’s unreal. It’s hard to describe. I worked so hard for that. All the games I’ve played and I was close a few times, but finally today it was good to get one in.”
