Anton Forsberg posted Ottawa's first shutout of the season and Tim Stutzle became the youngest Senator to reach 200 points as Ottawa beat the Seattle Kraken 2-0 Saturday night.
The Ottawa Senators' three-game losing streak has ended with a much-needed 2-0 victory over the Seattle Kraken Saturday night.
Anton Forsberg made 39 saves for his first shutout of the season and fourth of his career. It was also the first time the Senators had blanked an opponent all season.
Ottawa got goals from Mathieu Joseph and Drake Batherson, both coming off terrible misplays by the Kraken. The Senators then held on in the third with some serious shot-blocking to improve their record to 9-10-0.
DJ Smith was happy about his team's performance.
“I just thought we stuck with it, blocked a lot of shots," Smith said. "Obviously, goaltending was a big difference here tonight for us… got a couple of (penalty) kills.”
Smith also told The Hockey News Ottawa about his decision to dress 11 forwards and 7 defencemen for the game.
“For me, it makes us a little bit more difficult to match up against us," Smith said. "I think there's more ice time available for guys like Drake and Timmy... So, I think you'll see that a little more from us going forward, depending on who's available to us."
Tim Stutzle smiled when we asked him about playing with 11 forwards.
“Yeah, I mean, I can't really can't complain about ice time," Stutzle said.
The Senators made it 1-0 after Mathieu Joseph, who cannot stop scoring, took full advantage of a terrible turnover from Matty Beniers in front of his net. That gave Joseph all the time in the world to wait out former Senator Joey Daccord and beat him, blocker side.
Despite being outshot 15-3, the Senators did not give up a goal in the second period. The last time they did that was on October 26th, 12 games ago, against the Islanders.
The Senators wasted away two power plays in the middle frame, although they did have some good chances, especially when Joseph received a no-look behind-the-back pass from Claude Giroux but couldn't get it over the pads of Daccord.
The Senators also had a brief injury scare as Thomas Chabot, in his second game back from injury, went awkwardly into the boards and left the game favouring his right foot. He returned a couple of minutes later.
The Senators made it 2-0, thanks to the usually sure-handed Daccord, who fumbled the puck behind his own net. That led to a beautiful passing play from Vladimir Tarasenko to Tim Stutzle to Batherson. After a disallowed goal Friday and several shots off the iron Saturday, Batherson finally put one home into the unattended Kraken net – one of the easiest goals he will ever score.
With the assist, Stutzle became the youngest player in Senators history to reach 200 points. Naturally, the team saved the milestone puck for him.
“Maybe I will give it to Forsy,” Stutzle said. "He got a shutout tonight, so, pretty cool.”
Forsberg was the game's first star, improving his save percentage from an NHL-worst .850 (among goalies with at least five starts) to .882 in just one night.
“When he’s on, he’s on,” Smith said. “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.”
The Senators' will face a much tougher test in their next game Tuesday night against the New York Rangers. At 17-4-1, the Rangers are the best team in the NHL. Ottawa's next seven games are against teams that currently hold down playoff spots.