Tim Stützle poked the puck over the goal line with 6:38 remaining to propel the Ottawa Senators to a 3-2 win over the San Jose Sharks.
Jake Sanderson’s stretch pass sent Drake Batherson and Nick Cousins in on a 2-on-0. Sharks goalie Alex Nedeljkovic made the original save with his left skate, but Stützle drove the net to collect the game-winner. Having defeated Anaheim on Thursday, the victory was the Senators’ second consecutive in California to start their daunting seven-game road trip.
Sharks Will Smith appeared to open the scoring in the early minutes Saturday evening, finishing a Macklin Celebrini pass. However, Smith himself was deemed offside after the Senators challenged. Dylan Cozens got the Senators the board on the power play, redirecting a Stützle pass.
John Klingberg scored through a screen on a Sharks man-advantage later in the period to tie at one. Alex Wennberg’s backhand glanced off teammate Barclay Goodrow’s skate giving the Sharks a 2-1 lead. Former Shark Fabian Zetterlund who earlier caught iron with a shot, equalled the game at two for the Senators with a top corner blast shortly before the middle frame ended, setting the stage for Stützle’s winning marker in the third.
Game notes:
Senators November to remember
With four games remaining, Saturday’s win guarantees the club will finish with at worst a .500 record for the month November. The Senators are currently 5-1-3 during the month, and have not been above water in November since 2016 when they went 9-5-1. Last season, the team posted a lowly 5-8-1 mark.
The Senators face Los Angeles, Vegas, St. Louis, Dallas prior to month end.
Calling their shots
With Brady Tkachuk in the lineup, the Senators generally average 29 shots on goal per game and are among league leaders in this category. Without their captain, the team averages 26.5 shots per game, 24th league-wide. However, as the eighth-most scoring squad in the NHL (3.24 goals per game), the Senators are making them count.
Stingy Defense / Ullmark shines
On the flip side, the Senators rank second in shots (25.0) in shots allowed among the 32 NHL clubs.
Don’t look now, but over six consecutive starts goaltender Linus Ullmark has given up three goals or less. The Senators netminder has posted a 2.11 goals against average, .908 save percentage over this period. Ullmark also improved his career record to 8-0-0 versus the Sharks in the win.
The last time as a team, the Senators gave up more than three goals in regulation was October 28 in Chicago (7). The Senators have sustained only one loss in regulation since their drubbing against the Blackhawks (6-1-3).
Faceoff Domination
The Senators continued their extraordinary success in the dots Saturday, registering 61%. Cluade Giroux dominated the faceoff circle winning 17 of 21 draws (81%).
At 58.2%, the team leads the league. Tim Stützle ranks fifth among all faceoff qualifiers at 59.3%.
The Senators now fly back to Los Angeles for a Monday for a 9pm ET meeting with the Kings on Prime Video Canada.
The last tme the Senators defeated all three California-based clubs on one road trip was February 2015 during the great “Hamburglar” run.
