OTTAWA — Claude Giroux scored, and the Ottawa Senators won for the first time this season, 7-5 against the Boston Bruins at Canadian Tire Center on Tuesday.
Giroux gave the Senators a 1-0 lead 1:04 into the first period when he scored five-hole off the rush. The 34-year-old forward, who signed a three-year contract on July 13, is originally from Hearst, Ontario, and moved to Ottawa in 2002.
Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson and Tim Stutzle each had a goal and two assists, and Anton Forsberg made 28 saves in his third straight start for the Senators (1-2-0), who were playing their home opener.
“That was pretty amazing,” Tkachuk said of the atmosphere. “I don’t think in all the rinks that I’ve [been to] I’ve felt that excited for a game before. So, credit to all the fans and all the support that came out tonight because that was an amazing experience.”
Video: BOS@OTT: Giroux gives Senators early lead
Patrice Bergeron and David Pastrnak each had a goal and two assists for the Bruins (3-1-0).
Jeremy Swayman allowed six goals on 25 shots before being pulled in the second period. Linus Ullmark made five saves in relief.
“It’s disappointing, especially with the way we bounced back,” Swayman said. “The effort we gave was unbelievable and I feel like I let the boys down. I am definitely going to go back to the drawing board and do whatever I can because, I guarantee you, I’m going to make this up.”
Tkachuk made it 2-0 at 3:09, scoring from the left face-off-dot, and Batherson extended it to 3-0 at 13:14 off a pass from Tkachuk.
“I thought we hung [Swayman] out to dry,” Boston coach Jim Montgomery said. “His first two shots on net were 3-on-2s coming down 100 miles per hour. We didn’t get in anybody’s way. And that’s a tough way to start a game on fresh ice.”
Video: BOS@OTT: Tkachuk gets a feed and snaps it home
Bergeron cut it to 3-1 at 17:00, knocking in a rebound off a Pastrnak slap shot.
David Krejci scored 28 seconds into the second to make it 3-2, and AJ Greer tied it 3-3 at 1:30 off an offensive zone turnover.
“We’ve clearly got to learn how to handle those situations,” Ottawa coach DJ Smith said of giving up a three-goal lead. “But, in saying that, we stayed on them, we had lots of chances and we won the game.”
Shane Pinto gave the Senators a 4-3 lead at 11:57 with a one-timer on a 2-on-1, Stutzle pushed it to 5-3 at 13:58, and Mark Kastelic scored at 16:29 to make it 6-3.
Video: BOS@OTT: Stutzle moves to backhand and slides it in
Nick Foligno scored on a rebound to cut it to 6-4 at 17:55.
Pastrnak made it 6-5 at 19:45 with a wrist shot from the left dot.
“These games happen every once in a while,” Pastrnak said. “It was obviously our third game in four days. We kept it positive. We came back twice.
“Hockey is a long season. It’s still early and these kinds of games are going to happen. You see it around the league all the time. Just sometimes the puck goes into the net both ways.”
Artem Zub scored on his own rebound at 10:07 of the third period for the 7-5 final.
“Offensively, we did all the things we wanted to do tonight, but clearly we gave up too much,” Smith said. “There were a lot of nerves, you could see it on the bench. I thought we played really well in the first two games [of the season] and didn’t get the results, so we’ll just take the win and move on.”
NOTES: Foligno scored his first NHL goal 15 years ago on Oct. 18, 2007, as a member of the Senators in a 4-3 win against the Montreal Canadiens. Tuesday’s goal was the 207th of his career. … The attendance was 19,811, the largest crowd since Daniel Alfredsson’s jersey retirement Dec. 29, 2016. … Batherson had two assists to give him 100 in his NHL career. … Defenseman Anton Stralman had one hit, two blocked shots and was minus-2 in 18:29 of ice time in his Bruins debut after signing a one-year contract Oct. 12. He was in training camp on a professional tryout contract.
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