Hyman scores 50th of season for Oilers in loss to Senators

OTTAWA -- Zach Hyman scored his 50th of the season, but the Edmonton Oilers allowed four straight goals in a 5-3 loss to the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre on Sunday.

“A special moment, obviously, for me and my family,” Hyman said. “I’ve said it before, but when you become an NHL player, so many people have sacrificed and have driven you to rinks, my parents and uncles, everybody chips in to help you when you’re a professional athlete at this level. There are so many people who have sacrificed. My wife watching the kids by herself half the time. I think it means just as much or more to them to see you have success.”

Hyman reached the milestone by tapping in a centering pass from Connor McDavid on the power play to give the Oilers a 3-1 lead at 3:34 of the second period.

“From a guy that was just supposed to be a checker in the League, not sure if he’d ever make it to this league,” McDavid said of Hyman. “He’s worked for everything that he’s gotten, and now he’s a 50-goal scorer at the age of 31. It’s pretty impressive. It’s been cool to see and cool to kind of witness his transition to a goal-scorer.”

At 31 years and 289 days, Hyman became the third-oldest player in NHL history to record his first 50-goal season.

“In university, I had two goals my first year,” Hyman recalled. “I was drafted, and I was just a draft pick. I was no longer a prospect. Everybody kind of wrote me off. And then I started to score again, and then all of a sudden I was an NHL player, but I was an NHL player who had no hands and was a grinder playing next to [Auston Matthews] and [William Nylander] (with the Toronto Maple Leafs). That was kind of the narrative. And then I scored 10 goals, and then 15 and 20, and then, ‘Oh, he’s an OK player, he just plays with good players.’ And I still have that narrative, which is great. It’s awesome. I think it just shows that you just hit little milestones on the way and you just block out outside noise and you work really hard and you have a positive attitude and good things happen.”

Jakob Chychrun scored twice, and Drake Batherson and Tim Stützle each had a goal and two assists for the Senators (30-36-4), who have won two straight after a three-game losing streak. Joonas Korpisalo made 33 saves after he made 20 saves in a 5-2 win against the New Jersey Devils on Saturday.

“Not a lot of [offensive] zone time in the third, that's for sure,” Chychrun said. “The boys did a heck of a job of sticking with it and finding a way. We talk about it all the time. We feel like we've had games this year where we play really well and have a lot of chances and outchance the other team and don't get the result we want, and it was kind of the opposite tonight. They outchanced us, and we had a goalie that was standing on his head for us.”

Evan Bouchard had three assists, McDavid had two assists, and Calvin Pickard made 11 saves for the Oilers (42-23-4), who were coming off a 6-3 loss to the Maple Leafs on Saturday.

“I thought they got timely scoring,” McDavid said of the Senators. “It obviously felt like we were the better team and had the better chance (to win). We had the puck most of the night, but ultimately, they’re a skilled team, they capitalize on mistakes, and they did that tonight.”

Stutzle cut Edmonton’s lead to 3-2 at 4:48 of the second period, keeping the puck on a 2-on-1 rush and beating Pickard blocker side with a wrist shot from the left circle.

“Disappointing that we didn’t come home with the two points,” Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch said. “I thought we had a lot of good opportunities, especially when we’re up 3-1 and things are looking good. Then we make a mistake and it’s 3-2 and they’re back in it when they looked like they were out of it. And then special teams, obviously that was a big part of this game.”

Batherson tied it 3-3 at 16:30 with a power-play goal, scoring on a wrist shot from the left circle.

Ottawa was 3-for-4 on the power play. Edmonton was 2-for-3.

“‘Korpi’ played great and made some really nice stops,” Batherson said. “They had a lot of shots and we didn't have many, but we were able to capitalize there on the power play a few times.”

Chychrun gave Ottawa a 4-3 lead at 16:57 of the third period with a one-timer from the right circle on a power play.

Parker Kelly scored an empty-net goal at 19:20 for the 5-3 final.

“That was fun,” Korpisalo said. “Battled the full 60 [minutes] with the boys and the way we battled, you want to make it count. And I think we did, so great job.”

Adam Henrique gave Edmonton a 1-0 lead at 3:49 of the first period, putting in a seam pass from Mattias Ekholm at the right post.

Chychrun tied it 1-1 at 5:37 with a power-play goal. Batherson found him with a saucer pass over an outstretched Vincent Desharnais for a one-timer below the right circle.

Leon Draisaitl put the Oilers in front 2-1 at 1:38 of the second period with a one-timer from below the right circle on the power play.

“I mean, they were kind of all over us,” Batherson said. “I said to the boys, ‘The ice looks pretty good down in their end if we can get down there.’ But credit to the guys for keeping it out. Obviously, they hemmed us in a bit, and they're going to do that with those players over there that they’ve got.”

NOTES: McDavid became the fifth NHL player in the past 30 years to record 90 assists in a season. … Bouchard became the second defenseman in Oilers history to record 70 points in a season, joining Paul Coffey (five times). … Stutzle became the fifth player in Senators history to have at least 50 assists in consecutive seasons.