Key Takeaways
- Shane Pinto scored twice, including the overtime winner 2:08 into the extra period, as Ottawa beat Colorado 4-3.
- The Senators blew a 2-0 lead and trailed 3-2 in the third before Drake Batherson tied it with 3:56 left.
- Linus Ullmark made 26 saves for Ottawa; Scott Wedgewood stopped 22 for Colorado.
Ottawa won it twice — and lost it once in between
The Ottawa Senators built a lead, threw it away, trailed late, and still won. Shane Pinto opened the scoring unassisted midway through the first period and Tim Stützle doubled it before the intermission, but Colorado methodically took the game back: Artturi Lehkonen on a power play late in the second, Parker Kelly short-handed early in the third, and Gabriel Landeskog on another power play for a 3-2 Avalanche lead.
Ottawa's answer came with 3:56 left: Drake Batherson tied it 3-3, with Pinto picking up an assist. Then, 2:08 into overtime, Pinto ended it himself — his second goal of the night and ninth of the season, unassisted — for a 4-3 Senators win at the Canadian Tire Centre.
The numbers underneath
Linus Ullmark made 26 saves on 29 shots for Ottawa; Scott Wedgewood stopped 22 of 26 for Colorado. The Avalanche actually outshot Ottawa 29-26, and two of their three goals came on special teams — a power-play unit that struck twice and a short-handed goal — yet they leave with only the overtime point.
The win moves Ottawa to 12-6-2; Colorado falls to 11-6-3. Pinto finished as the game's first star with two goals and an assist.
The Twikup Take
This is the kind of game that used to get away from Ottawa entirely — lead gone, building quiet, points bleeding. Scoring the equalizer late and the winner early in overtime, with the same player driving both, is what mature teams do. Pinto's three-point night is the headline; the composure is the story.
Image: Shane Pinto with the Ottawa Senators in 2023 by Jenn G, CC BY-SA 2.0.