Oilers squeak by Senators in Smith's season debut

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Tyler Ennis scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period and goaltender Mike Smith made 27 saves in his season debut as the Edmonton Oilers beat the Ottawa Senators 3-1 Monday night.

Ennis beat Matt Murray with a low shot on a 2-on-1 for his first goal of the season after Ottawa was caught on a line change at 6:09.

Josh Archibald scored into the empty net with 1:10 remaining after Connor McDavid won the puck in his own end. The assist extended McDavid’s points streak to 10 games.

The teams meet again Tuesday.

The Senators entered the game with the worst record in the league, three points behind Detroit. They came out fighting, with two bouts in the first two minutes.

Leon Draisaitl also scored for Edmonton. Evgenii Dadonov scored for Ottawa.

Draisaitl ran his points streak to 10 straight, his fifth career double-digit run. Since he entered the league in 2014-15, only David Pastrnak (five times) and Nikita Kucherov (five times) have recorded at least five point streaks of 10-plus games.

Ottawa had lost 10 of its last 11 — with nine of those losses in regulation time — although the losing streak was actually at one given a split in a series with Montreal that saw the Sens win 3-2 last Thursday and lose 2-1 on Saturday.

NOTES: Mike Smith had been on long-term injury reserve since Jan. 15. The 38-year-old saw his first action since March 11, 2020. Mikko Koskinen had started 12 of the Oilers’ 13 previous games, with Stuart Skinner starting the other. ... It was career regular-season game No. 611 for Smith.

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The Oilers and Senators play again Tuesday night.

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