Linus Ullmark made 30 saves for his third shutout of the season and the second in the past three games as the Ottawa Senators opened what amounts to a nine-game trip with a 3-0 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday.
Ullmark, the 2022-23 Vezina Trophy winner as the NHL’s top goaltender while with Boston, has won his past six starts, allowing five goals over that span.
Shane Pinto, Noah Gregor and Tim Stutzle scored for Ottawa, which won its season-high fourth consecutive game. The Senators will play four straight away games before returning home for the NHL’s holiday break, then hit the road again for five in a row because the International Ice Hockey Federation’s world junior championships are being held in Ottawa.
Kraken goalie Joey Daccord, selected from Ottawa in the 2021 expansion draft, stopped 23 of 26 shots. Seattle went 1-2-1 on its four-game homestand.
The Senators swept the season series against Seattle without allowing a goal. They also won 3-0 on Nov. 2 in the Canadian capital with Anton Forsberg in net.
The Kraken outshot Ottawa 15-7 in a scoreless first period.
The Senators took the lead at 8:02 of the second. Michael Amadio forced a turnover as Seattle attempted to enter its offensive zone, leading to an odd-man rush the other way. Pinto lugged the puck up the right wing before taking a shot from the faceoff dot that snuck between Daccord’s pads.
Ottawa doubled its advantage at 12:45 of the second. Zack Ostapchuk carried the puck from his own blue line into the Seattle zone and dropped a pass for Ridly Greig at the left point. Greig immediately sent a cross-ice pass to Gregor, who beat Daccord from the faceoff dot with a shot just inside the near post as the goalie tried to move across the crease.
Stutzle made it 3-0 on a breakaway at 4:18 of the third. Claude Giroux forced a turnover in the Senators’ own end of the rink and Adam Gaudette sent a backhanded pass ahead to Stutzle on the right wing to send him in alone from the blue line. Daccord got a piece of Stutzle’s shot, but the puck deflected over the goalie’s shoulder before settling in the net.
–Field Level Media
