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Golden Knights 6, Senators 4

The Ottawa Senators will consider this a blowout victory.

For much of Friday’s game in Las Vegas, the Ottawa Senators were the better team.

But …

Yeah, there’s a big but.

They couldn’t finish. They wasted an effort that in many ways was enough to win.

The Senators lost 6-4 to the Vegas Golden Knights, spoiling the return of Ottawa goaltender Linus Ullmark, back after being out for nearly two weeks.

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Vegas went undefeated at home this season, going 5-0 at T-Mobile Arena.

The Senators now have four wins in their first seven games of the National Hockey League season.

Adam Gaudette gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead 2:40 into the game.

Claude Giroux redirected the puck past Golden Knights goalie Adin Hill at 12:15.

Nicolas Roy found himself alone to the right of Ullmark and scored at 17:23.

Twenty-one seconds later, Nicolas Hague took a shot that went wide of the net, but the puck hit the skate of Senators defenseman Jake Sanderson and bounced into the net for a Golden Knights goal.

Tim Stutzle was removed from the puck, but it bounced to Drake Batherson, who fired a shot that beat Hill, with 1:26 left in the first period.

The Golden Knights tied the game 3-3 with 13:20 left in the second period. Alex Pietrangelo drifted a puck from the point that went through a maze of bodies before being deflected into the net by Ivan Barbashev.

Adam Gaudette made it 4-3 with 2:16 left in the second period on an Ottawa power play.

Tomas Hertl, however, tied the game in the late stages of a Vegas power play with 3:11 left in the third period.

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A minute later, Keegan Kolesar scored when his shot beat Ullmark high on the stick side.

An empty-net goal by Barbashev with 1:46 left sealed it.

THE LINUS EFFECT: After a false start, where it looked like he would play Tuesday in Utah, Ullmark returned to take care of the pipes for the Senators. It wasn’t like it was a clean match, but he held his own for much of the match. The walls collapsed at the end of the third period. Could he have stopped the two late goals? Maybe. They were saves you’d want your goalkeeper to make, but it’s not like they were soft.

HIGH AND ADAM: Gaudette scored his first NHL goal since February 2022, then got another in the second period. The forward, who won the Hobey Baker Award as the best American college hockey player in 2018, made his NHL debut playing five games with the Vancouver Canucks during the 2017-18 season. He has since bounced back and spent much of his time in the American Hockey League. He’s shown he can put the puck in the net: he scored 44 goals last season with the Springfield Thunderbirds. It’s not like he plays a scoring role with the Senators. On Friday, he was between Zack MacEwen and Cole Reinhardt (who was recalled to replace the injured Shane Pinto). It was Reinhardt’s first point in the NHL.

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COLD STONE: Watching Mark Stone play against the Senators always reminds us how stupid it was to get rid of him in the first place. Stone, who jammed his left leg under Claude Giroux midway through the second period and left the ice for a moment, was dealt to Vegas at the 2019 trade deadline. The Senators packaged Stone, the Golden Knights captain, with Tobias Lindberg to replace Erik Brannstrom, Oscar Lindberg and a 2020 second-round pick. Yeah, it worked out really well. Stone, who scored 123 goals and 188 assists in his seven seasons with the Senators, has 92 goals and 268 assists in Vegas. His impact was greatest during the Golden Knights’ 2022-23 Stanley Cup victory, when he recorded 11 goals and 13 assists.

THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM: The Senators did a good job minimizing Vegas’ chances for the first 15 minutes of the first period, as the Golden Knights managed just three shots. Two Vegas goals in 21 seconds changed the tone of the game. The Senators gave up a goal in the second period, but calmed down during a tight third period until the tying goal slipped through Ullmark’s pads, then the game-winner a minute later.

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