Hogberg gets yanked as Sens slip again vs. Oilers

Oilers 3, Senators 2

Marcus Hogberg sprung a leak Tuesday night.

And, though he wasn’t alone on that front, his performance turned out to be a lot more costly.

Trying to give their struggling backup goaltender a chance to get back on track, Hogberg didn’t even make it through the game and the result was a 3-2 loss by the Ottawa Senators to the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday night at the Canadian Tire Centre, wrapping up a two-game series.

If that wasn’t enough, there were a few minutes before the start of the second where there was some concern whether this game would even get finished. One of the Zambonis looked like it dropped hydraulic fluid on the ice and, as a result, they had to reset the ice down near the goal line in the visitors’ end.

That caused a short delay while arena employees used fire extinguishers and they had to wait for it to freeze before resuming the period about 10 minutes late.

After seeing three goals on 13 shots — all by Oilers defencemen — only 3:52 into the second, Senators head coach D.J. Smith decided he had seen enough and yanked Hogberg. He has allowed 12 goals on 60 shots in three games against Edmonton, leaving him with a .800 save percentage in those contests.

“I thought we jumping from the get-go and I thought we were the better team all through the night,” Smith said.

Really, this performance left you wondering if Hogberg would ever play for the Senators again. He has a league-worst .837 save percentage in six games this season. It would surprise nobody if the organization didn’t want to put him in the net again.

“We talked today about accountability and that’s for every player,” Smith said, “whether you’re a young guy or older guy, and I have to do what’s right to give our team a chance to win.”

You really have to wonder if Joey Daccord may get a chance to play next week after seeing some American Hockey League action with the Belleville Senators on the weekend. The Senators moved Daccord from the taxi squad to Belleville on Tuesday and brought up Filip Gustavsson to act as the third goalie.

“(Hogberg) is a great kid. He works hard and he does all the right things. It’s just unfortunate he’s had some bad bounces and some goals go in on him. It’s not for lack of effort,” Smith said.

So much for Matt Murray getting the night off. He was strong in relief, but didn’t face a lot of shots.