Tkachuk scores twice, Senators defeat Hurricanes

OTTAWA -- Brady Tkachuk scored twice, and the Ottawa Senators defeated the Carolina Hurricanes 6-3 at Canadian Tire Centre on Sunday.

Tim Stutzle, Shane Pinto and Dylan Cozens each had a goal and an assist for the Senators (40-27-10), who have won two of three. Linus Ullmark made 25 saves in the second of back-to-back starts after a 4-1 loss to the Minnesota Wild on Saturday.

“It took everybody,” Tkachuk said. “All the forwards, all the ‘D,’ and Linus was outstanding, made some huge saves at the right time and (we) stayed consistent in our game, didn’t let things affect us.”

The Senators hold the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of the New York Islanders and two points ahead of the Columbus Blue Jackets and Detroit Red Wings.

“That’s a playoff team,” Carolina forward Taylor Hall said of Ottawa. “I don’t know if they’re going to make the playoffs, but that’s a team that plays playoff hockey, and it’s a good test for what we’re going to see. They have that desperation, and we’re going to have to match that in a couple weeks.”

Andrei Svechnikov, Logan Stankoven, and Hall scored for the Hurricanes (49-22-6), who had won three straight. Frederik Andersen made 25 saves.

Carolina is first in the Metropolitan Division and Eastern Conference. The Hurricanes would have clinched the division title with one point on Sunday.

“Pretty flat and just doing things that you’re not going to win (doing),” Carolina coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “(We were not) winning any 50-50 pucks and face-offs were terrible. We (didn't) start with the puck, bad pinches, bad penalties, the list goes on and on. And yet somehow we were still in the game there for a while. It was not a good night for us.”

Stankoven gave the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead on the power play at 5:22 of the first period. Nikolaj Ehlers attempted a backhand-to-forehand move down low but lost control of the puck, which slid into the slot to Stankoven, who buried it past Ullmark.

“That line’s been the one bright spot all year, really. They’ve never really come off it,” Brind’Amour said of the Hall-Stankoven-Jackson Blake line. “They’ve been pretty solid and he was good again. ‘Hallsy’ gave us a goal too at the end, not giving up. But we can’t win with just one line. We need to have other contributors, and we didn’t have that tonight.”

Cozens tied it 1-1 on the power play at 7:17. Drake Batherson sent the puck into the slot to Stutzle, whose rebound went to Cozens for a backhand past Andersen.

“They play well at home, they play with a lot of speed,” Hall said. “And if you're not able to sustain O-zone time in their end, they break pucks out quickly, and they're on the attack very fast.”

Stutzle gave Ottawa a 2-1 lead at 8:51 with a highlight-reel goal. He intercepted a pass at the blue line and broke in alone before deking to the backhand, forehand, and backhand again to beat Andersen.

“It was a superstar moment,” Tkachuk said. 

The Hurricanes tied the game 2-2 at 19:40. After two failed clearing attempts by Ottawa, Svechnikov put a shot on net that created a loose puck in front. Warren Foegele attempted to push it to Ullmark’s glove for a cover, but Svechnikov reached it first and scored.

“I think a lot of teams have learned to be like (the Hurricanes) and that's something that, you know, we've taken inspiration from them, and we knew it was going to be a grind of a game,” Tkachuk said.

Tkachuk regained the lead for the Senators, tipping Artem Zub's shot from the blue line to make it 3-2 at 8:33 of the second period.

Fabian Zetterlund then fed Pinto on the power play to put the Senators up 4-2 at 2:50 of the third period.

Tkachuk made it 5-2 at 6:32. Ridly Greig drove the net and put a backhand shot on net, with the rebound getting buried by Tkachuk.

“I thought everyone responded with a better game,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “Especially the guys that I didn’t think played that well yesterday. Just played a little harder, played a little quicker, went to hard places.”

Hall scored at 17:30 to make it 5-3. He picked up the rebound of Sean Walker's shot in the high slot for his 300th NHL goal.

“It’s nice to have that, I haven’t been scoring a ton lately,” Hall said. “Our line’s been playing well, but our lines going to be a big key going forward here, and we’ve all got to chip in.” 

Claude Giroux added an empty-net goal for the 6-3 final at 19:03.

“Last year, this year, it's, you know, it takes everybody in this community and we know how passionate, how bad (the fans) want (playoffs),” Tkachuk said, “They chant (‘we want playoffs’) multiple times and I don't think anybody wants it as bad as the guys in this room, so we always appreciate their support.”

NOTES: Forwards Jordan Staal (undisclosed) and Jordan Martinook (undisclosed) were late scratches for Carolina. … Tkachuk became the sixth player in Senators history to record 30 career multigoal games, joining Daniel Alfredsson (61), Jason Spezza (39), Dany Heatley (36), Alexei Yashin (36) and Marian Hossa (33).