It is a pretty good thing I only wrote one line for this article before the game was over, and I probably had a lot less written than many of my colleagues as the Senators got down in a 3-0 hole after 40 minutes.

But the Senators battled back and scored a couple before once again falling behind by a pair on a bad goal given up by Robin Lehner, only to tie it up with snipes from Mark Stone and Kyle Turris 13 seconds apart to tie it up and force extra time, earning an improbable point.

There was a couple of smelly goals given up by Lehner, but for once the Senators picked up their goalie and allowed him to make a great save in overtime on Blake Comeau to force the shootout. None of Bobby Ryan, Kyle Turris or Mika Zibanejad could solve Greiss in the shootout, and David Perron's goal stood as the game decider.

With his 2 goal game, Sidney Crosby moved up to an even 28 points in 28 career games against Ottawa, removing the Senators from the short list of teams that he had not been averaging a point per game.

The Senators had their chances during the game, with breakaway opportunities to Erik Karlsson and a penalty shot miss by Ryan. A very nice pinpoint passing play that saw two passes go a combined 150 feet or so sprung Alex Chiasson, but he failed to tuck it between Greiss' legs.

Mike Hoffman scored his team leading 18th goal of the season, all coming at even strength. Just to put that into perspective, Hoffman and Wild forward Jason Zuker are the only two players among the top 83 goal scorers in the NHL to not have a power play goal, and Hoffman is the only skater among the top 195 point-getters (he sat 143rd coming into this game) without a power play point.

I know announcers have to try to generate some hype for a particular game, but enough with the "important home stand" or "definitive game". Those days were gone about a month ago. It is what it is, and Ottawa just needs to continue to progress and learn from their mistakes.

Although it was a loss, you have to like the fact that they didn't hang their heads when Lehner allowed one that you would like him to stop, and fought back to get a point against a quality team. That comes after a few things you don't like to see (bad goals, early goals, 3-0 deficits) so your enjoyment of that game will depend on whether or you are glass half full or glass half empty.

Up next for Ottawa is the Edmonton Oilers paying a visit to Canadian Tire Centre, on Saturday for Hockey Day in Canada. Edmonton is coming in off an OT win in Montreal at the same time as Ottawa was falling to the Pens.

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