In the moments after being announced as one of the game's three stars on Saturday night in Ottawa, Senators captain Brady Tkachuk gestured to centre ice, telling fans the team would be coming back for Game 6.
On Tuesday night, he and the rest of his teammates backed up his words.
In a vitally important 4-0 win, the Senators played one of their best defensive games of the season, earning them the opportunity to return home to the Canadian Tire Centre for Game 6.
"It took everybody," Tkachuk stated when asked about bringing the series back to Ottawa. "Our best player tonight was Linus (Ullmark), and he made some huge saves for us."
The dramatic shift of events for Ullmark has been critical for a team trying to claw its way out of a three-game series deficit. It is not that anyone blamed Ullmark for the goals he allowed earlier in the series, but he was not making many game-saving stops either.
Tonight, his game was economical. He played square to the shooter and never put pucks into problematic areas—especially early, when he was forced to make several stops on deflections and skipping pucks that were tough to suppress.
Ullmark finished the night with a 29-save shutout performance.
As Brady Tkachuk explained, it took more than just the performance of the goaltender.
"I really think it took everybody on the bench," Tkachuk said. "(It took) everybody in our room because everybody wanted to win. Our will to win was high, and it paid off. (Now) it's all about resetting and getting refocused on Thursday."
One of the unexpected heroes of the game was second-line centre Dylan Cozens. It's been a challenging series for Cozens.
Through the team's first four games, he had a lonely assist in the team's 6-2 series-opening loss. Cozens has played predominantly with Drake Batherson as his primary winger, but David Perron and Fabian Zetterlund have alternated as the line's left winger.
As a line that is being counted upon to provide some measure of secondary scoring, Cozens' lines have failed to produce. In fact, his lines have only been on the ice for one Senators goal for in almost 36 minutes of five-on-five ice time, per Evolving-Hockey.
Interestingly, Cozens' first big offensive moment occurred with the Senators shorthanded.
With Ridly Greig sitting in the box for an undisciplined holding penalty on Mitch Marner, Cozens was called upon in the latter stages of the Senators' kill to fill Greig's role and take his first shorthanded shift of the series. The centre responded with one of the most pivotal sequences of the season for the Senators.
Keep in mind, entering Game 5, Cozens had logged eight minutes and 26 seconds of shorthanded ice time in 26 regular-season games with the Senators—an average of 24 seconds per game.
It took just 27 seconds of shorthanded ice time tonight for Cozens to make his mark.
"They made a play behind the net, and I just tried to jump (it)," Cozens remarked while reflecting on how the play developed. "(Adam Gaudette) made a great read and picked it off. It was good poise by him to let me get up the ice, and he made a great pass and I shot it. It's a great play by (Gaudette)."
"It's right at a time in a game where you don't want to be too aggressive, obviously, but I felt I had the speed to beat my guy up the ice and try and create opportunity. (Gaudette) just made a great pass."
It was the insurance goal the Senators sorely needed.
Tim Stützle and Brady Tkachuk would add empty-netters to ensure the victory and move the series back to Ottawa.
With Tuesday's loss, all of the pressure now shifts to the Toronto Maple Leafs, whose record in series-clinching games now lies at 1-13.
When asked about the shift in momentum, Thomas Chabot agreed that it was there.
"Yeah, I mean, we won two games in a row," the defenceman acknowledged. "You guys would have said the same thing when they won three in a row at the start of the series.
"You've got to enjoy the win. Obviously, it's great to come on the road and have a big win, but at the end of the day, this year is far from over. We're still facing a very, very talented team, and you get to focus on your group. You get to focus on the areas that you still need to improve and be better (at) and make sure that next game, we show up and do that."
The nervous energy in Scotiabank Arena was palpable during warmups and continued throughout the game.
Fans at the Canadian Tire Centre will not have to worry about that feeling on Thursday night. The Senators are playing with house money, and that building is going to be rocking.
"I expect pure insanity, that's for sure," Tkachuk stated while beaming about what kind of environment the team can expect when they return home. "(The fans) know how important they are. They know how much juice they give us and how now we just want to represent them well."
By Graeme Nichols
The Hockey News