Andrew Hammond: Devils spoil Andrew Hammond’s debut in OT

“I think that’s our mentality is just go out and playing until the final buzzer and that came through tonight”.

Centers Mika Zibanejad and Zack Smith, and winger Mike Hoffman had the other Senators goals.

Andrew Hammond’s magic touch disappeared and Chris Neil’s magic night faded away into bad memories for the Ottawa Senators Thursday.

“I feel healthy and my game is going in the right direction”, Hammond told the Ottawa Sun on Sunday. “We fought and clawed our way back into that after giving up two (early) power play goals and I thought we did a good job for the most part of shutting them down”.

Henrique cut the lead to one as he buried a Mike Cammalleri rebound at 14:10. Hammond completed the regular season without a regulation road loss (10-0-2), becoming the first goaltender in the National Hockey League modern era to do so in his first 12 starts.

That’s the goal – “a freebie” – that had Senators coach Dave Cameron most upset. “You can’t give teams a freebie and they got it”.

The Senators settled down late in the period and gradually took control of the game.

A late second-period spearing major on Devils winger Stephen Gionta looked to be costly for the visitors when Hoffman broke a 2-2 tie with a point blast at 2:24 of the third. Neil made it 4-2 at 6:38.

“It’s disappointing not getting two points out of that”, said Neil.

Ottawa had a strong second period, outshooting the Devils 14-9. Thursday’s defeat also marks the second consecutive game where the Senators (3-2-2) have picked up only a single point after having control of a game. It was Smith’s first goal since October. 28, 2014, a stretch of 36 games.

After opening the season with goals on their first three power plays, they had gone 1-for-17 with the man advantage before Hoffman’s third-period goal.

Does this indicate that the Devils might be a tough out at times this season?

Notes: Ottawa defenseman Marc Methot remains day-to-day with a concussion, while left winger Clarke MacArthur missed his third straight game because of a concussion….