In Columbus, Tim Stutzle‘s second period goal gave the Ottawa Senators a 2-1 lead on Sunday evening.
“We were calmer. We gave up fewer chances,” Ottawa head coach D.J. Smith said. “They were pushing, but we just took care of the inside of the ice, especially in our zone. … The first period, it looked like Columbus was really skating and we weren’t, but we hung on and got some timely goals and we found a way to check ourselves to a big win.”
Anton Forsberg made that goal stand up with a 35-saves performance in a 2-1 win over the Blue Jackets.
“It was nice to get back here, and obviously it’s the team that drafted me,” Forsberg said. “I spent my first pro years here. A lot of friends on the team. … It feels real nice in a lot of different ways. I spent a lot of time in this organization.”
Sean Kuraly scored the Jackets lone goal, his strike tied the game, 1-1, with 34 seconds left in the opening period.
“He played well,” Kuraly said. “We wanted to challenge him a little bit more than we did. He made the saves he needed to make.”
The Blue Jackets fell to 18-20-1.
“We had some looks, a couple of breakaways and didn’t capitalize,” Columbus head coach Brad Larsen said. “I thought it was a fairly even game. They had their looks, we had our looks. They just got the extra one.”
Artem Zub scored in the first period to give Ottawa a 1-0 lead.
“A great play by [Formenton] to get it to me in the middle,” Stutzle said. “A great stretch by [Drake Batherson] opened everything up for me. The guy was kind of cheating on him, then I had a quick movement to the goal.”
The Senators improved to 12-20-3.
Elvis Merzlikins made 31 saves in the Columbus loss.
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