Stutzle breaks tie in 3rd, Senators edge Sharks

SAN JOSE -- Tim Stutzle scored the tiebreaking goal in the third period and had an assist, helping the Ottawa Senators rally to defeat the San Jose Sharks 3-2 at SAP Center on Saturday.

Stutzle gave Ottawa a 3-2 lead at 13:22. He took a stretch pass up the middle from Jake Sanderson and skated in on a 2-on-0 with Nick Cousins before San Jose goalie Alex Nedeljkovic stopped Cousins’ backhand with his outstretched left pad. Stutzle then poked the puck off the goal line and into an open net.

"Great pass by [Jake Sanderson],” Stutzle said. “I didn't know if it was offside or not, so I kind of just followed up the play."

Dylan Cozens and Fabian Zetterlund also scored for the Senators (11-6-4), who have won the first two of a seven-game road trip and are 5-1-1 in their past seven. Linus Ullmark made 17 saves.

"Just another gritty effort, a lot like the other night," said Ottawa coach Travis Green, whose team came from behind to defeat the Anaheim Ducks 3-2 on Thursday. "Thought we played decent in the first half of the game, and then I thought we kind of picked up the pace of our game with our tracking and our forecheck. Spent a lot of time in their zone. Had a lot of good looks."

John Klingberg and Barclay Goodrow scored, and Nedeljkovic made 24 saves for the Sharks (10-9-3), who had won two in a row. Macklin Celebrini had an assist to extend his point streak to four games (six points; three goals, three assists).

"We couldn't win a puck at all," San Jose coach Ryan Warsofsky said. "Defensively, offensively, and when you don't win pucks, you basically just skate and chase it. That's what we did."

Will Smith appeared to give the Sharks a 1-0 lead 1:27 into the first period, but his goal was overturned after the Senators challenged for offside.

Cozens put Ottawa in front 1-0 at 7:50 with a power-play goal. Stutzle skated down the left wing and threw a pass to the slot that Cozens redirected past Nedeljkovic's left pad.

Klingberg tied it 1-1 on the power play at 16:06. After taking a pass from Celebrini, Klingberg scored with a wrist shot from above the right circle that went over Ullmark's blocker with Alexander Wennberg screening the goalie.

"That was a great screen by [Wennberg] in front," Klingberg said.

Goodrow made it 2-1 for San Jose at 7:47 of the second period. After Ullmark stopped Mario Ferraro’s one-timer on the rush, Wennberg backhanded a rebound that went in off Goodrow’s skate.

Zetterlund then tied it 2-2 at 18:38. Tyler Kleven found him cutting through center ice, and Zetterlund’s wrist shot from the right circle beat Nedeljkovic over the glove.

"What a night. It felt unreal," Zetterlund said. "Great pass by [Kleven] there. I thought I had [Cozens] on the other side, too. But shooting isn't a bad option either."

NOTES: Thomas Chabot returned to the Senators lineup after missing three games with an upper-body injury. The defenseman was minus-1 and had three shots on goal in 21:45 of ice time. ... Ottawa is 3-0-2 in its past five road games. ... Senators forward Claude Giroux was 17-for-21 on face-offs (81 percent).