The Ottawa Senators won’t be spending anytime on their home ice over the holidays.
The Senators will play the first of nine consecutive road games Tuesday in Seattle against the Kraken and won’t play at home again until Jan. 9.
They will get to be with their families during the NHL’s holiday break, as their trip will be broken up into two segments: a four-game Western swing that also includes stops in Calgary, Vancouver and Edmonton; then a five-game trip after Christmas because the International Ice Hockey Federation’s world junior championships are being held in Ottawa.
“It’s always hard going out West,” Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark said. “Our goal is to win them all, but we’ll see afterwards what the results are and what we’ll bring home for Christmas.”
The Senators have won three straight for the first time this season and five of their past six, moving into an Eastern Conference wild-card playoff spot with a 3-2 overtime victory Saturday against visiting Pittsburgh. Brady Tkachuk scored 1:46 into the extra period and Ullmark made 25 saves.
“We’re playing to our identity,” said Tkachuk, who leads the team with 15 goals and is third with 32 points behind Tim Stutzle (36) and Drake Batherson (33). “We’re playing for each other and if we keep doing it, the results are going to keep coming.”
Added defenseman Thomas Chabot: “This group is rolling off the momentum. We’ve got a long road trip ahead of us and we’ve got to bring that to Seattle on Tuesday night.”
Perhaps the biggest part of the resurgence has been Ullmark, who is showing the form that earned him the Vezina Trophy, which goes to the league’s top goalie, in 2023 while with Boston. Ullmark is 6-0-1 over his past seven starts, a span in which he has a 1.55 goals-against average and a .950 save percentage.
Ullmark wasn’t supposed to play Saturday, but was forced to make his third start in four days after backup Anton Forsberg suffered an injury in pregame warmups.
“For Linus to step in and have the night he did, it’s impressive,” Senators coach Travis Green said.
The Kraken are 4-2-1 over their past seven games despite a 5-1 loss to visiting Tampa Bay on Saturday when they allowed three third-period goals.
Oliver Bjorkstrand has scored four times over the past four games to tie Jared McCann for the team lead with 11 goals.
Seattle’s Brandon Montour opened the scoring, but it was all Lightning after that.
“We can’t ask for a better start. Monty gets us one early, and we don’t really have much of a response the whole entire game,” fellow defenseman Vince Dunn said. “Guys are working hard, maybe not working necessarily in the smart places.
“We kind of look like the same that we were probably eight games ago (losing to Anaheim then San Jose twice). That’s disappointing … we know that we can hopefully respond the right way here come Tuesday in the last game of the homestand.”
–Field Level Media
