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Batter Up: Smith knocks in own rebound to help Senators rally past Kings 2-1

Nov 11, 2016 | 8:30 PM

OTTAWA — Zack Smith’s old baseball skills helped the Ottawa Senators find some of their offensive spark again.

Smith batted in his own rebound with just under four minutes left to play to tie it before Mark Stone scored with seven seconds to go as Ottawa rallied past the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 on Friday. The Senators have had difficulty scoring goals lately, with just four goals in their past four games.

“I have to give a shout out to my old baseball team, the Maple Creek Mohawks,” said Smith. “My teammates could attest I wasn’t a very good hitter but I think I redeemed myself with that one.”

Stone tracked down a loose puck in the crease and gave the Senators (9-5-0) the lead less than four minutes after Smith tied the game.

“We stuck together for the full game, kept believing in our game plan and it paid off at the end,” said Jean-Gabriel Pageau, who had two assists. “We had a lot of chances and you get a little frustrated but you have to keep up with what you’re doing. If you’re getting chances it means you’re doing good things.”

Jeff Zatkoff had a shutout going through the first two periods for the Kings (7-8-0), stopping all 18 shots the Senators sent his way, but he was replaced to start the third by Peter Budaj, who had a shutout streak of 140:57 snapped Thursday night in Montreal.

Zatkoff, who recently came off the injury reserved list with a lower body injury, pulled himself after the second period.

After Budaj made 12 straight saves, Smith batted in his own rebound out of midair and in to the net at 16:06 of the third period to tie the game 1-1. Budaj finished with 13 stops.

“Zatkoff made some pretty crazy saves there on us. We were getting chances which was helping us stick to it,” said Smith. “I think that’s important to know that we can stick around all game and if you have to wait for the last couple of minutes to score then so be it. I thought we were good all game.”

Craig Anderson was the busiest of the three goalies in the game as he stopped 32 shots.

“We played as good as we could. We were a little overstaffed in the third and we knew they were going to come hard,” Kings coach Darryl Sutter said.

“They have a lot of forwards who drive the net and both their goals were scored when we had defencemen lying around the net, so we lost a couple of battles there.”

Dwight King had the goal in regulation for the Kings.

The Kings had the lone power play of the first period, the most shots and most opportunities but they were unable to get anything past Anderson in the opening 20 minutes.

Los Angeles came closest to scoring in the first when Nick Shore used a nifty toe-drag to get around Senators forward Ryan Dzingel and beat Anderson with a shot but it hit the post to keep the game scoreless.

The Kings beat Anderson again 56 seconds into the second period, as well as the post, to take a 1-0 lead.

Jeff Carter was originally credited with the goal as his backhand found the far side through a crowd and behind Anderson. The goal was later changed to King as it appeared to hit him in the leg before going in to the net.

That was the only goal of the second period, but not for lack of effort from Anze Kopitar, who was stopped point blank by Anderson on the power play and then missed the net on a short-handed breakaway.

Ottawa continues its busy home schedule this month when it hosts the Minnesota Wild on Sunday in the fifth of their 10 November games at Canadian Tire Centre.

The Kings will play the fourth game of a five-game trip when they face the Jets in Winnipeg on Sunday.

Notes — Chris Wideman and Mike Blunden were scratches for the Senators. Matt Greene and Jordan Nolan were scratches for the Kings…Senators forwards Chris Kelly (36) and Jean Gabriel Pageau (24) each celebrated birthdays…The Senators are 2-10-1 all time in Remembrance Day games…King played his 300th career game, all with the Kings.

Darren Desaulniers, The Canadian Press