Stutzle has goal, assist for Ottawa, which wins 3rd straight; New Jersey has lost 3 of 4
Devils at Senators | Recap
OTTAWA — Brady Tkachuk had a goal and two assists, and the Ottawa Senators defeated the New Jersey Devils 4-1 at Canadian Tire Centre Saturday night.
Tim Stutzle had a goal and an assist, and Dylan Cozens scored his 100th career NHL goal for the Senators (26-21-7), who have won three straight games.
“I haven’t just liked our last week, I’ve liked a lot of our season,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “I think we’ve played a lot of good hockey and, I’ve said it in here before, probably should have a few more points, but this is the spot we’re in, and I do like that we’re still playing good hockey and we’re trying to claw our way back into this.”
Linus Ullmark made 26 saves in his first start for the Senators since taking a leave of absence on Dec. 28.
“It felt like I came out of retirement,” Ullmark said. “At the end, there, also during lineup, it was really hard holding it together, and I didn’t want to hold it together, also. It’s one of the things that I’ve been working on, just letting the feelings flow a little bit, it’s nothing, nothing bad about that in a way. So I was really happy with — that we got a win today as well.”
NJD@OTT: Tkachuk sends it under the pad for game opener on the power play
Timo Meier scored, and Jake Allen made 30 saves for the Devils (28–25-2), who have lost three of their past four games.
“I thought we were right there,” New Jersey coach Sheldon Keefe said. “We were in the hockey game, and we had some chances, we could have very easily either won that game or certainly got it to overtime. But it’s a mistake here or there that they made good on, or power play that they made good on, and that’s also been the difference.”
After killing back-to-back penalties to start the first period, the Senators got on the board first on a power play of their own.
Tkachuk wristed a pass at the left circle from Drake Batherson and beat Allen glove side to give the Senators a 1-0 lead at 13:38 and break New Jersey’s streak of 17 straight successful penalty kills.
“The crowd was awesome tonight, and I mean, our MVP tonight was Linus Ullmark,” Tkachuk said. “He made some absolutely huge saves, and he was a rock star.”
It was the first time the Senators had scored on the power play in six games.
“We were kind of all over the map in a good way,” Tkachuk said. “Just kind of filling in spots, and I think that just shows the type of players that we are, that we can adapt to any situation.”
The Devils went 0-for-5 on the power play.
“I just think that we didn’t really move well enough and spread them out,” Devils forward Jesper Bratt said. “I think that we played a little too tight. We didn’t really get off the walls. We just kept the pucks going a little too much instead of attacking from the middle of the ice.”
The Devils tied it 1-1 at 18:16. Cody Glass fought through a netfront battle and backhanded the puck from behind the net while falling to Meier, who one-timed it from the right circle past Ullmark.
“You score one goal a game, it’s hard to win,” Bratt said. “I think that it’s obviously something we got to start figuring out, and get our scoring chances up a little bit. I think that we get a lot of shots, but our netfront presence hasn’t really been there.”
The Senators regained the lead 2-1 just 37 seconds into the third period. A Tkachuk shot off the blocker of Allen rebounded to Cozens, who won a netfront battle for the puck and pushed it past Allen.
NJD@OTT: Cozens deflects it on for PPG and 100th career goal
Connor Brown appeared to score the tying goal for New Jersey at 16:00 of the third period on a power play, but it was ruled a hand pass after review. Brown closed the puck with his hand off a rebound and attempted to drop it to his stick near the left post, but it was deflected straight off Ullmark’s and into the net.
“I feel like in that case, it’s obviously — we’re not going to love the interpretation of that rule, because it’s an empty net goal for [Brown] if the goalie doesn’t do what he did,” Keefe said. “So that’s a tough bounce, didn’t go our way.”
Stutzle put the Senators up 3-1 at 17:53, capitalizing on a 2-on-1 opportunity.
Shane Pinto scored into an empty net to make it 4-1 for the Senators at 18:41.
“With Linus being back in the net, it was nice to get the win for him, but he was a big part of it,” Green said. “He was outstanding. It was a real good team win again.”
Ottawa defenseman Thomas Chabot left the game in the third period and did not return. Green had no update on his status.
NOTES: Tkachuk became the fifth player in Senators history to score 60 career power-play goals, joining Daniel Alfredsson (131), Jason Spezza (90), Alexei Yashin (77) and Dany Heatley (68). … Tkachuk also recorded his 32nd career three-point game and moved into a tie with Erik Karlsson for the fourth most in Senators history. The list is topped by Alfredsson (74), Spezza (59) and Yashin (40). … Jake Sanderson recorded his 12th career multipoint period with two assists in the third and passed Zdeno Chara (11) for the fourth most by a Senators defenseman. He now trails Erik Karlsson (52), Wade Redden (23) and Chabot (18).
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