With defenceman Erik Brannstrom playing on the wing, the Sens' fourth line had its most productive game of the season.

For the Ottawa Senators, 2023 went out with a bang on Sunday night.

In their final game of the calendar year, they defeated the Buffalo Sabres 5-1. Head coach Jacques Martin’s decision to play defenceman Erik Brannstrom as a forward worked wonders for the fourth line, which scored two goals on the night. Anton Forsberg was stellar with 45 saves in the win. The Senators improved to 14-18-0 on the season.

With Thomas Chabot returning to the lineup, Ottawa was forced to play with 11 forwards and 7 defencemen because of salary cap constraints. In his 1300th career NHL game, Martin went into his bag of tricks, using Brannstrom on a line with Mark Kastelic and Zack MacEwen.

The Senators opened the scoring, 1-0, when Jakob Chychrun one-timed a silky-smooth saucer pass from Claude Giroux on the powerplay. Martin pulled the first unit after only 38 seconds and it paid off. The goal snapped the club's 0 for 11 power play drought over the past four games. It was also Chychrun's 200th career point.

The unusual fourth line move paid dividends within 13 minutes, as Zack MacEwen caught the Sabres napping on a poor line change and walked into a beautiful slap shot that beat Devon Levi clean over his glove to make it 2-0 Senators.

In the late stages of the first period, Jacob Bernard-Docker’s clearance was batted out of the air by Jeff Skinner. Skinner fed it to Tage Thompson, who scored with 14 seconds left in the first period. Thompson's wrist shot beat Anton Forsberg, who got a glove on the puck but it still dribbled into the net, cutting the Ottawa lead to 2-1.

The Senators finished with 18 shots in the first period.

The second started with a flurry of chances for both sides as Tim Stutzle’s turnover at the Sabres blueline led to a JJ Peterka breakaway that Forsberg initially stopped. But Peterka picked up the rebound and passed it to Skinner who had a wide open net. Stutzle dropped to his knees and saved a goal that he almost created in the first place.

The Senators extended their lead to 3-1 on their first shot of the 2nd period, thanks to Dominik Kubalik. He scored on a backhand shove, after receiving a beautiful pass from Ridly Greig, who split the Sabres defence before feeding Kubalik. Chabot picked up his second assist of the game in his first game back since December 2nd.

The Senators fourth line wasn’t done for the night as Brannstrom set up Mark Kastelic with a beautiful pass that Kastelic redirected past former Carleton Place Canadian Devon Levi to make it 4-1 Senators.

In the third period, it looked as though Parker Kelly had extended Ottawa’s lead to 5-1 but it was ruled that the Senators were offside. It was the second time this season that a Kelly goal was overruled for that reason.

Up by four, with 4:44 left in the game, Artem Zub scored into an empty net to make 5-1 Senators. The crowd promptly chanted “ZUUUBBB.”

After the game, Martin talked about his decision to move Brannstrom to forward.

“He is a great skater. He's got some good offensive skill," said Martin. “I think it was a bit of a shock this morning when I talked to him about it, but I felt that he could help the team. Sometimes you got to sacrifice in order to make the team a priority. And I think in the long run, it helps you be more versatile, you're a better player. I thought he did a great job.”

Brannstrom told The Hockey News-Ottawa after the game the last time he played forward was 14 years ago. He didn't complain but he also didn't seem very happy about the shift.

“I’d rather play defence, actually," Brannstrom said.

Martin was pleased with Forsberg’s 45 save performance. We asked him about his plan moving forward with his goaltenders.

“I’m trying to get familiarized with them and see what their strengths are," Martin said. "You just gotta keep working with them and make sure that they play at their best when they're called upon.”

The Senators now head out on a five-game West Coast Road trip, with their first stop on Tuesday (10pm Eastern) when they take on the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena.