Pinto strikes at 63 as Senators edge Avalanche 4-3 after overtime

Highlights

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Five power plays. Zero goals. A 4-3 win anyway. Ottawa's night at Canadian Tire Centre tore up the script and still ended with the Senators on top after overtime, the 63rd-minute winner the only piece that went to plan.

The Senators set the early terms. Brett Kulak sat for the night's first minor at minute four, and Shane Pinto broke through in the 8th; Tim Stützle buried a Fabian Zetterlund feed in the 14th to send Ottawa to the first break up 2-0. The middle frame turned chippy — five minors shared — and Colorado found footing: Artturi Lehkonen, set up by Nazem Kadri, halved the lead at 2-1 in the 39th.

The third flipped it fully. Parker Kelly tied it 2-2 at minute 44, Gabriel Landeskog nudged the Avalanche ahead 2-3 at 51 off Brock Nelson, and the visitors — 29 shots to Ottawa's 26, two power-play goals on five chances while the Senators went 0-for-5 — looked like the better side. Drake Batherson made his sixth shot of the night count in the 57th, off Jordan Spence, 3-3. Then overtime, and Pinto again at 63, unassisted: 4-3.

Pinto's line is the game in miniature: 2 goals, 1 assist, plus-2, and both goals scored without an assist — the winner included. Linus Ullmark made 26 saves behind Ottawa's penalty trouble; Scott Wedgewood stopped 22 for Colorado. Batherson led the hosts with six shots and got his goal; Dylan Cozens added a helper.

Outshot, blanked on five power plays, 10 penalty minutes in the book — and Ottawa still got there, because one centre needed nobody's help and no second chance to settle it.