Les Sénateurs d’Ottawa terminent leur série de la saison avec une quatrième défaite consécutive contre les Sabres de Buffalo

SABRES 5, SENATORS 2

Article content

Article content

The Ottawa Senators should be thrilled they’ve seen the last of the Buffalo Sabres.

The Senators closed out their season series against the Sabres with a 4-1 loss in front of 16,446 on Thursday night at the Canadian Tire Centre and posted 0-4-0 record against Buffalo this season.

Only veteran winger Claude Giroux and Jake Sanderson were able to beat Buffalo goalie James Reimer, who made 33 stops in the win.

Article content

Goaltender Linus Ullmark didn’t get much offensive help, but wasn’t at his best either. The Senators were outscored 17-5 by the Sabres this season, and that’s nothing short of inexplicable.

“You’re going to have games like that,” Giroux said. “It wasn’t our best game, but we didn’t play that bad. We had our chances. It’s frustrating for sure. We know we need to tighten up a few things.”

The Senators have a 99 percent chance of making the playoffs with eight games left, but they should take nothing for granted. This was one of those nights where their best players had to be better.

The Sabres have been one of the National Hockey League’s worst third-period teams, and the Senators didn’t have enough of a push to get back into the game when they were trailing by two goals.

Ryan McLeod put it away into an empty net.

Payton Krebs extended the Sabres’ lead to 4-1 at 9:59 of the third, but Sanderson closed the gap only 23 seconds later with his ninth of the campaign by beating a screened Reimer

Article content

Article content

Most of the night, Ottawa had far too many missed shot attempts.

GET INTO THE GROOVE

The Senators had posted a .667 winning percentage at home coming into this game, and they’d better take advantage of that fact.

This is a tough week for the Senators with the Tampa Bay Lightning visiting on Thursday, the Florida Panthers on Saturday and the desperate Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday.

The Senators need to get desperation back in their game, and it has to happen quickly.

No surprise to see Reimer for the Sabres. He made 32 stops in Buffalo’s 3-2 victory over Ottawa last week. He had posted an 18-6-4 lifetime record versus the Senators with a 2.54 GAA and .925 save percentage.

“It doesn’t matter who you play. You want to play the right way and give yourself a chance to win,” Giroux added. “Anytime you leave some points on the table, it’s definitely disappointing.”

It doesn’t help that Reimer gets a chance to see every puck and the club has got to be harder to play against. The shots were 20-13 for Ottawa through 40 minutes.

Article content

TURN IT AROUND

The challenge was more difficult with Tkachuk.

His absence meant that coach Travis Green had to shift his lines around, which didn’t help a club that has struggled to score at 5-on-5.

Trailing 3-0 after Tage Thompson scored his 39th of the season at 12:36 of the second, Giroux got the people in the arena back into the game only 1:10 later. He took a pass and fired it past Reimer.

The Senators 0-for-3 on the power play in the first, and that can’t happen, especially when you’re trying to push to get a playoff spot. Tkachuk leads the team with 14 power play goals, but it’s still inexcusable.

“We’ve got to be invested in playing a full 60 minutes. We didn’t like that we were down 2-0. We didn’t feel our game was quite a 2-0 game,” Green told TSN’s Claire Hanna midway through the game. “Our powerplay has to be better than it was.”

BACK IN THE PIPES

Ullmark returned after backup Anton Forsberg made 34 stops in the club’s 1-0 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins on Sunday.

Article content

Forsberg started the club’s last two losses to the Sabres so it made sense to try something different. Ullmark came into this game with a 4-2-0 record in six career starts against the Sabres. He had posted a 2.36 goals-against average and a .929 save percentage in that stretch.

The last time Ullmark faced the Sabres, the club dropped a 5-1 decision in Buffalo on Nov. 5. He didn’t look good to start this one.

Rasmus Dahlin extended Buffalo’s lead to 2-0 in the first by firing a blast from the point by Ullmark on the stick side at 11:51. We’re not sure he saw it or if the puck redirected off someone in front.

The Sabres opened the scoring at 8:38 of the first. Ullmark made the initial stop, but had no idea where the rebound was. That allowed Alex Tuch to deposit it home with a backhand on only the third shot he faced.

“It’s tough getting down two goals,” said Sanderson. “We weathered the storm, but you don’t want to lose four times to a team in your conference. It was tough against Buffalo this year.

“It’s pretty apparent we struggled against them this year. I don’t know if it’s the way they play with that run-and-gun, high skill or whatnot. But we’ve got to figure it out.”

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

Article content