The Ottawa Senators capped off a successful weekend defeating the Utah Mammoth 4-2 Sunday evening at the Canadian Tire Centre in the second of back-to-back games. Saturday, the Senators edged the Philadelphia Flyers 3-2 on a Tim Stützle overtime goal.
By virtue of earning the two points Sunday, the Senators leapfrogged past Toronto, Detroit and Tampa Bay into third place in the tight Atlantic Division. The club is on a roll, procuring a 6-1-2 record over their past nine games, and have posted a 7-3-3 mark without the services of their injured captain, Brady Tkachuk.
One the key reasons for the Senators victory Sunday was the play of Jordan Spence. Appearing in only his seventh game this season, Spence registered a goal and an assist, making him a point per game player (one goal, six assists) early in the 2025-26 NHL campaign.
After Senators Ridly Greig and Utah Mammoth Clayton Keller exchanged first period goals. Spence gave his team a 2-1 second period lead, blasting a shot past Mammoth goalie Vitek Vanecek off a David Perron feed. The goal was Spence’s first as an Ottawa Senator. His dad, Adam was in the building to view it.
Strong opening 40 minutes
Nick Cousins extended the Senators lead to 3-1, before Nick Schmaltz brought his club to within one heading into the third period.
Michael Amadio redirected Thomas Chabot’s shot, to extend his goal streak to four games with Spence adding a secondary helper to close out the scoring.A healthy scratch in nine of his 16 games to date with the team, the right-shot d-man was acquired from the Los Angeles Kings on Day Two of the NHL Entry Draft as insurance if Nick Jensen wasn’t available to open the season. Jensen underwent off-season hip surgery, but recovered enough to be inserted into the Senators lineup. This left the Australian-born Spence to compete with Nik Matinpalo for ice-time on a daily basis.
After Sunday’s game, Spence explained his situation, “I mean, it is challenging. It gets to you mentally sometimes, but you know, you just got to take that aside, and just focus on yourself every day. When you come into the rink, either you’re playing or not. I just want to go out there and practice and even at the gym to just improve on my on my game. And that’s what I have to do.I just got to have a positive mindset every day. And you know when I when I do that and when I’m confident on the ice, good things happen. So I just want to keep that going as myself.”
Despite not playing on a nightly basis, the 24-year-old remains upbeat,.
“I just want to keep my confidence when I’m on the ice. I think that’s like the most important thing. If I get scratched, I don’t want to come back and kind of just not be confident and not play my game. I just want to play my game every time I’m on the ice. And, you know, we have great ‘D’ pairings. I played with “Klev” (Tyler Kleven). I played with “Chabby” (Thomas Chabot). They’re really easy to work with. And obviously, it’s always good to have that chemistry. And I just want to keep that going, keep building that,” said Spence postgame.
Adjustments made
An in-game adjustment by Senators assistant coach Nolan Baumgartner had Spence elevated to the second defensive pair with Chabot after playing alongside Kleven.
Baumgartner’s move worked as the new duo were directly responsible for two of the Senators four tallies on the night.
Chabot on partnering with Spence, “The poise he has, the vision, the hockey sense he’s got, is amazing. And obviously, kind of knew that hearing from him when he played back in juniors. But no, I mean, it’s not an easy position. Obviously, everybody wants to play every single night, and for him to come in the last two games, even yesterday the way he played and the way he played both ways up to the ice. That’s what we try and do here as a team and be good. And I mean all credit goes to him.”
And for Jordan Spence on his battle to stick in the Senators lineup, he’s taking “one day at a time, trying to control the controllables.”
