Senators On the Verge of the Play-offs after Shutting Out the Blue Jackets

Following back-to-back wins, the Ottawa Senators headed into their Sunday matchup against the Columbus Blue Jackets incredibly close to being able to clinch a playoff spot. On the other end of things, Columbus came into today holding on for dear life, as they need a miracle to make it into the post-season tournament. The Senators knew the job wasn't done yet though, and they started about as well as is possible.

Just 4:26 into the game, Ottawa had already scored twice on Daniil Tarasov and he was surprisingly out of the game. First, Adam Gaudette came flying through the neutral zone and took a shot after entering the zone. Tarasov couldn't fully stop it, and Gaudette notched his 17th goal of the season – and first in twenty-four games:

Then a few minutes later, it was another player on a lengthy goal drought who got on the board—although can you call it a drought if you've never scored? Nikolas Matinpalo jumped into the cycle, got the rebound on a point shot, and barely slid it past Tarasov:

It was his first career goal in his 41st game, and his parents were there to witness his milestone, which is pretty neat. It was not a good start for Tarasov, and head coach Dean Evason had seen enough: Elvis Merzlikins came into the game in relief. Almost the entire first period felt like a powerplay for the Senators, as Columbus came out incredibly flat. Ottaw wasn't able to add to their lead, but they were in the driver's seat after one period.

Columbus woke up a little bit in the second period and outshot Ottawa 10-9 and outchanced them 20-18 (20-10 at 5v5). However, they never seemed to get the grade A chances with the consistency they were looking for, making it mostly pretty easy on Linus Ullmark. Ottawa would've loved to add to their lead and even had 29 seconds of a 5-on-3 plus another powerplay later in the period, but after a shot off Merzlikins' head and some other missed chances, the scoreline remained 2-0. In other news, Mathieu Olivier was lucky his cross-check to the head of Matinpalo was only a tw0-minute minor, and thankfully Matinpalo was okay.

After missed opportunities in the first and second period, Ottawa finally put the game a bit out of reach 4:32 into the third period. It was another depth player scoring, this time David Perron. Drake Batherson's left side shot was too much for Merzlikins to handle cleanly, and Perron was there for a strange bat out of mid-air goal:

After that goal, you would have thought that Columbus was going to give everything they had, knowing how thin their margins were for making the playoffs. However, it was quite an uneventful third period for both teams. No penalties were called, and Ottawa finished the game having not gone to the box once. Columbus pulled the goalie with over three minutes left in the game because that's what you do when you're trailing, and Ullmark made some key stops in those dying minutes. Then with 41 seconds left, Shane Pinto pushed the lead to 4-0 on an empty-net goal scored from the defensive zone. It was a 4-0 win, back-to-back shutouts for the weekend, and their third win in a row.

Not only that, the Senators are now just one win away from clinching a playoff berth:

With Detroit is winning 2-1 over Florida, so Ottawa will have to post a win as opposed to clinching with the Rangers losing, but the point is: they've essentially made the playoffs. There are five games remaining, and one win will get them in, but even if they lost all five, they're still pretty likely to make it. It's almost real, folks!

Notable Performances:

• Ullmark didn't necessarily need to steal the game, but he was fantastic nonetheless. He stopped all 30 shots and the Senators now lead the NHL in shutouts with 10. They're also just the third team in NHL history to have three goalies with three or more shutouts each.
• If Gaudette is able to provide anything close to what he did in the beginning of the season, that'll help immensely. He has two goals and two assists in his last 32 games, which is obviously a far cry from his torrid pace in the fall.
• Fabian Zetterlund might end up being the greatest 0-goal trade deadline acquisition of all-time. He is extremely snake-bitten, yet he's doing a lot of things right.
• Ottawa continues to sit back a lot when they're up early, which has worked in terms of getting wins, but I can't not remark on it. They had a 69.39 xGF% at 5v5 in the 1st period but 32.35% and 26.49% in the final two periods. Wins count forever, and we shouldn't be too sad about this, but the turtling is real.
• With Florida falling to Detroit, Ottawa is just two points back of third in the division, and the Senators own the tiebreaker. Getting out of the Wildcard would be interesting, although I've already prepared myself to be facing the Toronto Maple Leafs, not the Tampa Bay Lightning.

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