'Oh My God, He's Such A Stud': Senators' Ullmark Makes Diving Save Against Former Team

Ottawa Senators fans bowed to goaltender Linus Ullmark after he pulled off a save-of-the-year candidate against his former team.

With the Senators leading the Boston Bruins 5-3 late in the second period, Ullmark’s diving catch led to a stellar third frame in net that helped extend the team’s win streak to five games in a tight battle for the playoffs.

“Oh my God, he’s such a stud,” Senators defenseman Tyler Kleven told reporters after the 6-3 win.

After Ottawa led 4-1 after the first period, the Bruins scored twice in the second period to reduce the deficit to two goals. Ullmark had a 0.786 save percentage up to that point in the game with 11 saves on 14 shots.

Boston controlled possession in the offensive zone with about 90 seconds to go in the middle frame. As newly acquired center Marat Khusnutdinov and defenseman Andrew Peeke passed the puck back and forth, blueliner Mason Lohrei found an open lane to the net on the far side of the ice.

Khusnutdinov turned toward the net, which led Ullmark to challenge him at the top right corner of the crease. But Khusnutdinov found Lohrei all alone with the setup for a one-timer.

Lohrei had a wide-open net to shoot at from the faceoff dot. Ullmark was nearly out of the crease when he saw the pass, and Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot could only stick out his stick and skate to try to block the chance.

As Lohrei connected with the puck, Ullmark pivoted to angle himself diagonally toward the left post and swung over. He stretched out his glove hand quickly enough to get in front of the biscuit right before it entered the crease.

By the time Ullmark completed the grab, he was almost standing on his head, his left leg sticking up over his body.

“I was laughing,” Ullmark told the media post-game, as reported by Graeme Nichols. “Sometimes I wonder, how did that happen?”

Ullmark stopped all eight shots after that as the Bruins outshot the Senators in the final 20 minutes. He even tried to score a goalie goal on the empty net but missed wide.

“He’s such a big part of this team, and he wins us a lot of games,” Kleven said. “I’m honestly not even surprised that that happened – I see it all the time. He’s an awesome guy off the ice and an even better teammate on the ice.”

It wasn’t a perfect game for the 31-year-old Ullmark, who finished with a .880 save percentage and minus-1.24 goals saved above expected, but the game’s second star beat the team that traded him last June for the second time this season.

His former tandem-mate, meanwhile, only lasted one period in net on Thursday.

Jeremy Swayman allowed four goals on 15 shots for a .733 SP as Shane Pinto, Kleven, Drake Batherson and Ridly Greig got on the board. Bruins interim coach Joe Sacco pulled him in favor of Joonas Korpisalo, who went the other way in the Ullmark trade with Ottawa. Korpisalo stopped 14 of 15 shots to keep his team in the game, but it wasn’t enough for the Bruins to complete the comeback.

The Bruins still sit two points behind the Columbus Blue Jackets for the second wild-card spot, while the Senators are now five points ahead of Columbus for the first wild-card place.

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