The second leg of the Battle of Ontario will take place on Saturday when an Ottawa Senators team looking to get into playoff position hosts the Atlantic Division-leading Toronto Maple Leafs.
Ottawa enters the game having lost two straight on the road, both by shutout. Getting blanked has been a more frequent occurrence of late. The Senators — who earned a 3-0 win at Toronto on Nov. 12 — have been held scoreless six times this season, and five of those have come this month.
On Thursday, Joonas Korpisalo stopped 29 shots for the host Boston Bruins to beat his former team 2-0.
It wasn’t for a lack of effort, as coach Travis Green noted his team attempted at least 70 shots.
“Usually, you’re going to get a few goals out of that, but it’s obvious the puck’s not going in for us right now,” Green said after the loss. “We just got to stick with it.”
Team captain Brady Tkachuk, who leads the Senators with 18 goals and is third with 38 points, has been held pointless in the last nine games, dating back to Jan. 9. Points leader Tim Stutzle (45) has just two points in his last six games, and both of those, a goal and an assist, came in the Senators’ 6-5 shootout win over the Bruins on Jan. 18.
Getting the power play going would help spur the offense. The Senators went 0-for-4 in Thursday’s loss, and they are just 1-for-19 in their last seven games.
Toronto saw its three-game winning streak snapped Wednesday in a 5-1 home loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. Auston Matthews scored the Maple Leafs’ only goal in the loss to continue his hot streak.
The three-time NHL leading goal scorer has a five-game goal-scoring streak in which he’s lit the lamp six times. Since returning from an injury that cost him six games from Dec. 21 to Jan. 2, the Leafs captain has registered nine of his 20 goals.
Coach Craig Berube told reporters Friday that he’s seeing Matthews perform like he did in preseason camp and the start of the season. Matthews also missed nine games in November because of an upper-body injury. He reaggravated that a month ago to force him out for the six games during the holidays.
“I just see the speed and the pace of the game he’s playing with,” Berube said. “He looks like he’s really healthy.”
While Matthews appears to be back in form, some of his teammates who also have been battling injuries may be ready to return in the near future.
Goalie Anthony Stolarz, who has been out since suffering a knee injury in the Dec. 12 game against the Anaheim Ducks, is recovering ahead of schedule, Berube said Friday. The coach wants to see more from his netminder in practices, but he does not believe Stolarz — who has a .927 save percentage in 17 games this season — will miss many more games.
Left wing Matthew Knies, who did not return against Columbus after suffering an upper-body injury, is considered day-to-day.
Ottawa, too, has its share of injuries. Defenseman Jake Sanderson, whose 23 assists rank third on the team, did not play Thursday because of an upper-body injury. Nick Jensen, another defenseman, left the Boston game early after suffering an injury. Forward Josh Norris, the second-leading goal scorer with 17, is expected to miss Saturday’s game and Sunday’s against Utah because of his upper-body injury.
–Field Level Media
