Ottawa Senators left wing Brady Tkachuk (7) gets knocked off his skates as he battles for the puck with Vancouver Canucks left wing Danton Heinen (20) and centre Teddy Blueger (53) during second period NHL hockey action in Ottawa, on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

OTTAWA - The Ottawa Senators were searching for answers Saturday after inconsistency and missed opportunities were their undoing, again, in a fifth straight loss.

The Senators surged late in the third period with a pair of goals, but fell short in a 4-3 loss to the visiting Vancouver Canucks.

Early lapses and costly mistakes hampered Ottawa (8-11-1). Only the Montreal Canadiens (7-11-2) rank lower in the Eastern Conference.

“I know we've been stressing playing a good full 60, and I just think we're still having too many lapses,” Senators centre Josh Norris said.

"I know you guys have heard it a million times, and trust me, so have we, so it's frustrating, and now we're trying to work it out. But yeah, it was a good battle back at the end.”

The battle back was Claude Giroux and Tim Stutzle both scoring in the final three minutes and 31 seconds, but the hosts were unable to complete the comeback.

That push came with the captain not on the ice and in the locker room. A visibly frustrated Brady Tkachuk took fighting and misconduct penalties with just over six minutes remaining.

Would Tkachuk have made a difference at the end?

“Whatever Brady and I talk about, will be between Brady and I, but he's an emotional guy,” Senators coach Travis Green acknowledged. "I'm not going to take away his passion and his emotion. We're going to coach Brady. Every player you coach a little bit different.

"I'm not going to harness or take away his passion, his emotion. Quite frankly, it might have got us back in the game a little bit.”

The Senators dropped to 1-10-1 when they give up the first goal.

“We're at home and we should be taking advantage of playing at home and (we) find ways to trail behind,” Giroux said.

“We always have a good push at the end, but at the end of the day, we need to have that push when the game starts.”

Midway through the first period, Ottawa failed to make the most of a Quinn Hughes boarding major. The defenceman's ejection from the game left the Canucks playing five the remainder of the game.

"We gifted goals tonight. We gifted them goals," Green said. "Give Vancouver some credit. They checked well. They're a good-checking team. They've got some good habits in their game.

"But in the NHL, you can't gift goals. A couple turnovers, you don't get a clear, you make a mistake. Those are gifts in my mind."

Vancouver (10-6-3) not only killed the penalty, but scored just over a minute after its expiration when Jake DeBrusk notched his first of two in the game.

“With Quinn being out and guys that we’re missing and stuff like that, I thought we came together as a group,” said DeBrusk.

"I thought we had a pretty solid 40-minute stretch after that power play they had. I thought we started to play our game and we got some bounces because of it.”

Tkachuk drew the Senators even early in the second period, but Teddy Blueger and DeBrusk with his second gave the visitors a 3-1 lead.

Kiefer Sherwood rounded out the scoring for the Canucks. Kevin Lankinen stopped 26 of 29 shots in Vancouver's net.

Linus Ullmark made 17 saves in the loss, and the Senators fell to 0-4-1 in their last five home games.

As the losses piled up, questions about the team’s confidence and mental state became more prominent.

Norris refuted the notion of a fragile group, but acknowledged the team’s inconsistency.

“I don’t know, I mean, I could start throwing words out there of what our group is like,” Norris said.

"It’s about us internally, and we’re figuring it out day-by-day. We have a lot of work to do. Make no mistake. It’s frustrating to find consistency.

"That’s the hardest thing to do in sports, and we don’t have it right now. We’ve got to find it.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 23, 2024.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2024