Will Smith, Tyler Toffoli and Timothy Liljegren scored, and Macklin Celebrini had two assists for the Sharks (15-37-9), who have lost eight in a row (0-5-3). Vitek Vanecek made 27 saves.
“It’s pretty tough [to stay positive]. It eats you a little bit from the inside,” San Jose defenseman Jake Walman said of the losing streak. “You kind of come into buildings where teams -- I mean, it’s the reality of it -- where other teams feel that they can play confidently against us, and at some point we’ve got to strike that down and turn a page.”
Pinto gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead at 11:05 of the first period when he took a lead pass from Greig, skated in on a short-handed breakaway and scored on a snap shot. Pinto missed the previous four games because of an upper-body injury.
“I almost felt like we were a little casual in the first 10 minutes and then found our game and got back to how we need to play,” Senators coach Travis Green said. “I liked our second half, but we’re going to have to play that way on the road here for 60 minutes.”
Toffoli tied it 1-1 at 5:17 of the second period on the power play after his centering pass deflected in off Jake Sanderson’s skate in front.
“Obviously, last year was a struggle as well, but we’re in games right now and we’re right there,” Sharks defenseman Mario Ferraro said. “The small margin for error, it’s this big, right? And we’re not finding a way to stay disciplined enough to play a full 60-minute (game), or whatever it is, to pull out those wins. I think that’s just the little bit of immaturity in our game as a whole, as a team.”
Liljegren’s power-play goal gave San Jose a 2-1 lead at 9:47, a one-timer from the point.
Tkachuk tied it 2-2 at 1:26 of the third period during a 5-on-3 advantage with a wrist shot from the top of the right face-off circle.
“Those are going to be positions that we're going to sometimes maybe get used to and be confident [in],” said Tkachuk, who missed two games with a lower-body injury sustained during the 4 Nations Face-Off, where he represented the United States. “Being down going into the third, and just still finding a way to get the job done, just a big two points. I mean, playoff hockey starts now, so you’ve got to win these games to get into the dance.”
Stutzle put Ottawa back ahead 3-2 at 3:00. Greig’s dump-in bounced off the stanchion and popped out front to Stutzle, who scored into an open net.
David Perron extended it to 4-2 at 8:31 when he finished on a Thomas Chabot rebound.
“Just stay with it,” Perron said of the message heading into the third. “We felt like the way we were finally playing the last maybe 10 minutes of the second period, we were going to get the next one.”
Smith cut it to 4-3 at 18:33 on the power play, but Michael Amadio scored into an empty net at 19:00 for the 5-3 final.
“We’re a young team, right? We kind of knew it was going to come,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said of the Senators’ push in the third. “I think they’re a team that are playing for their playoff lives and we knew there was going to be some desperation from that side of it, but again, there are things that we can definitely do better.”
NOTES: Sanderson left the game late in the third period and did not return after taking a cross-check from Toffoli. Green did not have an update on Sanderson’s status post-game. … Tkachuk scored his 55th career power-play goal, passing Marian Hossa for fifth most in franchise history. … Ottawa center Josh Norris had three hits and two blocked shots in 16:00 of ice time in his return from a mid-body injury after missing six games. … Vanecek has lost seven starts in a row (0-5-2) and hasn’t won since Nov. 29.
