Forsberg, Senators shut out Kraken, end skid at 3

OTTAWA -- Anton Forsberg made 39 saves, and the Ottawa Senators defeated the Seattle Kraken 2-0 at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday.

“We played really well and fought for each other out there,” Forsberg said. “A lot of blocks. It was a really good win.”

Forsberg entered the game with an .850 save percentage, the lowest in the NHL among goalies with five or more games played. It was his first shutout in seven starts this season and his fourth in the NHL.

“It’s been tough,” Forsberg said of his start to the season. “It’s been a lot of ups and downs, obviously. Some good games, some bad games. I’ve got to find consistency, the whole team’s got to find some consistency. We’ve got to win games on a more regular basis here.”

Seattle outshot Ottawa 15-3 in the third period.

“When he’s on, he’s on,” Senators coach D.J. Smith said of Forsberg. “The guys love playing for him. No one works as hard as he does. He’s as good a guy as we have in that room. And you know right from the get-go when ‘Forsy’s’ going, seeing pucks.”

Mathieu Joseph and Drake Batherson scored for Ottawa (9-10-0), which had lost three straight, being outscored 14-5 in that span. The Senators were coming off a 4-2 loss at the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday.

“Capping that off with a win, I think, was big for our group,” Ottawa center Tim Stützle said. “I think we played pretty well for 60 minutes. I think we could’ve scored more goals, and our [defensemen] did a heck of a job there blocking every shot, even in the last 10 seconds [Erik Brannstrom] ate one and that shows our commitment.”

Joey Daccord made 26 saves for the Kraken (8-11-6), who have lost four straight.

“We generated some good chances, but we didn’t get second pucks,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “[Forsberg’s] also a guy that you’ve got to be able to take away his eyes, and we didn’t do that well enough for sure in the first half of the game, but we got a little better in the second half and that created some second opportunities.

“We’re here to get two points, so we’re not really trying to win the game of positives, negatives. We’re trying to win a hockey game.”

Joseph gave the Senators a 1-0 lead at 17:21 of the first period after Kraken center Matty Beniers lost the puck while falling down deep in his own zone. Joseph picked it up and finished with a deke on the forehand in tight on Daccord.

“I think we battled really hard,” Joseph said. “That’s a team that works extremely hard. I think our goalie was excellent, I think our special units were good, I think our [penalty kill] was much better today. We were opportunistic, and like I said, our goalie kept us in the game.”

Batherson scored into an open net for the 2-0 final at 13:37 of the second period. Daccord had misplayed the puck behind the net, which led to a tic-tac-toe passing play between Vladimir Tarasenko, Stützle and Batherson.

“The rim came and it just hit my stick and bounced in the air and took a really bad bounce,” Daccord said. “I was trying to corral it and couldn’t corral it and saw [Kraken defenseman Will Borgen] coming, so I thought he was coming to pick it up and had a bit of miscommunication. He thought I was going to play it, I thought he was going to pick it up and they capitalize. We’ll clean that up and I’ll be better for it.”

Stützle got an assist for his 200th NHL point (78 goals, 122 assists).

“Speed. That game was fast and he was fast,” Smith said of Stützle. “I thought he turned it up another level away from the puck, speed-wise. He was chasing on pucks. I thought Drake had a really good game, too. You know, you’re torn as a coach at the end of the game with who you’re putting out, and I think if I go back and look, Drake made some plays and did some smart things, as well.”

Seattle and Ottawa each went 0-for-3 on the power play.

“We had a lot of chances, odd-man rushes and obviously, we’d like to get some more inside and try to find some pucks around there,” Kraken forward Jordan Eberle said. “Their goalie played really well. I thought for the most part we battled, we created a lot, but we’re just trying to find more second chances. We made two mistakes and they ended up in the back of our net.”

NOTES: Seattle forward Brandon Tanev had one shot and was minus-1 in 13:02 of ice time after missing two games with a lower-body injury. … Stützle (229 games) became the fourth-fastest player in Ottawa history to reach 200 points (Dany Heatley, 159; Jason Spezza, 207; Alexei Yashin, 221).