In Ottawa, a three-goal second period help send the Toronto Maple Leafs to a 3-0 win over the Senators on Saturday.
Ilya Samsonov made 31 saves in the shutout win.
“Terrific. That’s obviously what you want to see from him,” Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I didn’t think there was a whole lot of offense either way in the game here tonight, but certainly they probably had the better of the chances, I would say, in the game. He was excellent.”
The Maple Leafs improved to 45-20-10.
“I needed to get back on track, back on the win track,” Samsonov said. “I got some extra focus for today.
“Everyone knows Ottawa is a very high-paced team, and those guys did a lot of shots today. We just tried to prepare for this. Sheldon, he said a lot about this before the game. We’re happy we got the two points, and we’ll keep it rolling.”
Michael Bunting opened the scoring in the second period for a 1-0 lead.
“It’s been a battle with the amount of guys that have gone out,” Ottawa coach D.J. Smith said of the team’s lengthy injury list, which includes defensemen Thomas Chabot and Jakob Chychrun, forward Josh Norris and goaltender Anton Forsberg. “I can’t fault the guys. They gave everything they had tonight. It’s that simple. And we’ll do that again tomorrow (at the Blue Jackets), and we’ll do it every game until they tell us we can’t play.”
The Senators dropped to 37-34-5.
“Another night where hard work should get rewarded,” Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk said. “It’s not the outcome we wanted, of course, but everyone left it all out there, so you definitely take some pride in that.”
William Nylander added a marker for a 2-0 advantage.
“One of the things we’ve been talking the most about is managing the lead and not letting teams [back] into it,” Keefe said. “We took another penalty in the third period that opened the door a little bit for them, but by and large, I really liked how we handled the game once we had the lead.”
Radim Zohorna closed out the scoring in the middle frame, and the game for the 3-0 final.
“I felt great,” Zohorna said. “To be a part of this team, to be right next to these big, big players, great players, it’s such an honour. I’m just enjoying every minute here.”
Mads Sogaard made 13 saves through two periods of ice time. He allowed all three Leafs goals. He got the hook in the second intermission.
“We battled hard all game,” Senators defenseman Nick Holden said. “Came out and had a really good first period. I think they did a pretty good job getting pucks behind us, and we didn’t break out as good in the second period and gave them some chances, and they obviously capitalized on those.”
Cam Talbot made four saves in relief.
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