Ullmark makes 29 saves, Senators hold off Blue Jackets

OTTAWA -- Ridly Greig had a goal and an assist, and the Ottawa Senators held off a late rally from the Columbus Blue Jackets to win 3-2 at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday.

“It was intense,” Greig said of the final five minutes of the game. “I think throughout the next 10 games here there’s going to be a lot of intense moments like that. We’re getting used to it and it’s a lot of fun to be out there.”

Linus Ullmark made 29 saves, Shane Pinto had two assists, and Drake Batherson and Jake Sanderson scored for the Senators (39-28-5), who are 3-1-0 in their past four games.

“Felt close to a playoff game tonight,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “Obviously, the crowd was awesome. It was a good effort. I thought our details were sharp, I thought our energy was good. There was a lot of loose puck battles that you have to win at this time of year.”

Ullmark made 14 saves in the third period.

“I felt like in the past, we haven’t played great with the lead,” Sanderson said. “But we’re getting better at it. And another great game from ‘Ully.’”

Boone Jenner extended his goal streak to four games, Zach Werenski had two assists and Daniil Tarasov made 24 saves for the Blue Jackets (33-30-9), who had won two straight.

“That was a great game. Both teams played hard, played fast,” Columbus coach Dean Evason said. “Certainly, the start was fantastic, the pace of the game, and everybody was playing their butts off. We had lots of chances, obviously, and certainly in the third period and at the end, to tie it. That was just a real great hockey game that we fell a little bit short [in].”

The Senators hold the first wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Eastern Conference, six points ahead of the New York Rangers and eight points ahead of the Blue Jackets and Montreal Canadiens.

“I think we all know how big of a win it is,” Pinto said. “‘Greener’ kind of emphasized in the morning that this is obviously a big one for us.”

Greig gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead at 7:24 of the first period when he tipped a Thomas Chabot point shot.

Jenner responded 31 seconds later to tie it 1-1 at 7:55, scoring on a Werenski rebound in the slot. It was Jenner’s fifth goal in his past four games.

“We knew it was going to be a tight game, back and forth,” Jenner said. “I think both ways it was tight, not many chances. That’s the type of games you’re going to get at this time of year. We battled all night. Great effort by us, but we came up one short.”

The Senators regained the lead 2-1 at 14:08 when Batherson kicked a Dylan Cozens rebound to his stick and slid it five-hole on Tarasov.

Sanderson extended the lead to 3-1 at 9:17 of the second period. Sanderson crashed the net on the rush and had Pinto’s rebound go in off of his skate.

“You talk about a team maturing, but also a lot of individual players are maturing as we go on and he’s definitely one of them,” Green said of Sanderson. “He’s a very good offensive defenseman, but he does a lot of subtle things in your own zone that people don’t notice, that stops momentum, stops scoring chances. He’s got a great stick; he’s got great hockey sense.”

Kirill Marchenko cut it to 3-2 at 11:02 of the third period. He deked Greig at Ottawa's blue line and scored with a wrist shot from the slot under Ullmark’s left pad on the rush.

“They played hard; they didn’t give us much,” Werenski said. “I thought we played hard too. I thought it was a pretty even game for the most part. Probably would like to have back some minutes in the second there; I feel like we didn’t get to our game. But yeah, it’s a good team. They’re fighting for the playoffs as well and they didn’t give us much tonight. But I liked our effort, I thought we could learn from it.”

NOTES: With his 21st win of 2024-25, Ullmark tied Joonas Korpisalo for the second-most wins in a goaltender’s first season with the Senators. Dominik Hasek had 28 in 2005-06. … Chabot had a game-high six blocks. … Ottawa is an Eastern Conference best 30-6-0 when scoring first.