Bussi makes 35 saves, Hurricanes cruise past Senators

OTTAWA -- Brandon Bussi made 35 saves, and the Carolina Hurricanes defeated the Ottawa Senators 4-1 at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday.

Seth Jarvis had a goal and an assist, and Jalen Chatfield had two assists for the Hurricanes (32-15-5), who extended their point streak to five games (4-0-1).

“Our group finds a way to keep plugging away,” Bussi said. “You know, whether it’s our best night or not, I thought our compete was really high.”

Bussi, a rookie, improved to 19-3-1 and has allowed just three goals in his past three starts.

“It’s been getting better and better, which is great,” said Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour of Bussi. “I mean, I think early he was good, but now he seems to be settling in, and that’s two points that he got for our group. There wasn’t much else going on there tonight. So we need that. You need that when you don’t have your best game.”

Tim Stutzle scored, and James Reimer made 15 saves for the Senators (23-21-7), who have lost four of their past five games (1-2-2).

“Whether you're winning or losing, we've done a pretty good job of just processing the game and getting ready to play the next one,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “That's all you can do. That’s sport. You're gonna go through adversity; how you handle it decides your fate. Everyone's going through adversity at one point in time, and we're going through it. We gotta stick with it.”

William Carrier opened the scoring, giving the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead at 3:53 of the first period when he tapped in a pass from Mark Jankowski on a 2-on-0 rush.

“I think there was a couple breakdowns,” Ottawa forward Drake Batherson said. “Obviously, that led to that 2-on-0 that we’d like to have back, just some systematic stuff. But besides that, I thought it was pretty solid.”

Jarvis made it 2-0 at 5:36 with a snipe from the right face-off dot that went bardown past Reimer on the third shot of the game for the Hurricanes.

Carolina capped its three-goal opening period when Taylor Hall accepted a cross-ice pass from Jackson Blake and fired a wrist shot through the five-hole to make it 3-0 at 18:43.

“They made it hard on us,” Hall said. “I don’t know if it’s the schedule or whatever, but we didn’t have that energy to match it. But some nights you need to get bailed out, some nights you win games that you know, maybe you shouldn’t.”

With 1:50 of 5-on-3 time, the Hurricanes capitalized on the two-man advantage for a 4-0 lead at 9:29 of the second period. From the goal line, Andrei Svechnikov banked the puck in off the skate of Senators defenseman Tyler Kleven in the crease.

“I think, you know, you get out to that early lead, and then it’s just human nature a little bit to just let off the gas,” said Brind’Amour.

Carolina was held to just three shots in the third period.

“I liked a lot of our game tonight,” Green said. “There’s certain parts, we can be a little better, and we’ve gotta go do it again. You can’t sit and hang your head. And that’s the whole NHL this season, there’s a lot of ups and downs, and you gotta be able to handle them emotionally as well.”

Stutzle got the Senators' only goal of the game at 12:11 to make it 4-1 with a wrist shot that beat Bussi blocker side.

“I wouldn’t say our effort was frustrating,” Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk said. “Everybody gives everything they have to win. That makes it difficult to comprehend because when you truly give everything you have, usually the results follow.“

NOTES: With 19 wins in 23 games, Bussi is one victory away from becoming the fastest goalie in NHL history to reach 20. … Nikolaj Ehlers now has points in 11 straight road games vs. Ottawa (since 2017–18), the second-longest such streak in NHL history behind Dale Hawerchuk (12).