Senators score four in third, cool off Jets

WINNIPEG --The Ottawa Senators scored four goals in the third period, including three 3:15 apart, in a 5-2 win against the Winnipeg Jets at Canada Life Centre on Thursday.

"Our focus is making sure that we're playing the right way every game until the end," Ottawa defenseman Nick Holden said. "And if we have the opportunity to crush some dreams (against teams in the Stanley Cup Playoff race), then that's what we're going to do."
Brady Tkachuk scored twice, Tim Stutzle had two assists, and Anton Forsberg made 22 saves for the Senators (23-36-5), who had lost five of six.
"[Tkachuk] scores two, he had short shifts, he played well away from the puck," Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said. "He played a real solid game away from the puck, and that's what we're looking for down the stretch from those guys is to be plus players when they're on the ice, and they were plus players and a big part of it tonight."

Kyle Connor scored his 40th of the season for the Jets (30-25-10), who had won four of five. Connor Hellebuyck made 28 saves.
"We needed to keep it a little simpler, and that resulted in the score tonight," Connor said. "I thought they did a really good job … limiting our chances, forced us to make a lot of dumped pucks, and we just weren't able to retrieve pucks like we usually do and tried to come up the middle and make an extra play more than we should have."
Josh Morrissey gave Winnipeg a 1-0 lead at 8:38 of the first period when his centering pass deflected in off the stick of Holden.
"At this time of year, with the position that we're in, we want to get on a run," Jets forward Nikolaj Ehlers said. "But this is not an easy league to do that in. There are some pretty good teams, and Ottawa was great tonight, there's no way around that. We played into how they want to play, and we didn't play the hockey that we need to play to win games."

Tkachuk tied it 1-1 at 14:03, deflecting Artem Zub's shot from the right point.
"Whenever our forwards are skating, I feel like our team plays pretty well," Holden said. "I thought they did a good job driving pucks deep, and then if pucks are turned over, they were coming hard back through the middle. That just gives the 'D' an opportunity to keep our gap a little bit and be in good defensive position right away."
Tyler Ennis gave Ottawa a 2-1 lead at 12:25 of the third period, shooting into an open net off a pass from Mathieu Joseph on a 2-on-1.
'The biggest thing is we turned too many pucks over in the neutral zone, and it didn't allow us to get any sustained zone time," Jets coach Dave Lowry said. "We seemed to be one and done. There were a lot of pucks that were inside we didn't get to, really."
Colin White scored on the power play to make it 3-1 at 14:41, and Connor Brown extended the lead to 4-1 at 15:40 when he tapped in a centering pass on a rush.
"We checked hard, we tracked really hard through the middle," Brown said. "They like to make plays off the rush, and we limited most of that just with numbers back. We did a lot of good things."

Connor cut it to 4-2 at 17:06 with Hellebuyck pulled for the extra skater, but Tkachuk shot into an empty net at 18:44 for the 5-2 final.
NOTES: Defenseman Travis Hamonic, who was making his Senators debut after being acquired in a trade with the Vancouver Canucks on Monday, played in his 700th NHL game. He had three shots, three hits, and three blocks in 18:39 of ice time. … Senators defenseman Nikita Zaitsev left in the third period after being hit in the face with a puck. Smith said Zaitsev received multiple stitches. … Connor has scored seven goals in his past nine games… Jets forward Zach Sanford had two shots and one hit in 15:51 of ice time against his former team after Winnipeg acquired him in a trade with Ottawa on Monday.