Field Level Media - Professional sports content solutions | FLM

The Ottawa Senators will look to build on their lead in the Eastern Conference wild-card race when they host the Columbus Blue Jackets on Saturday night.

The Senators (38-28-5, 81 points) hold the first wild card in the East, six points up on the Blue Jackets, the Montreal Canadiens and the New York Rangers.

Ottawa, which is 20-10-2 on home ice this season, is eight points behind the third-seed Tampa Bay Lightning in the Atlantic Division with a game in hand.

Ottawa enters Saturday’s action after edging the Detroit Red Wings 4-3 on Thursday night.

Thomas Chabot, Tim Stutzle, David Perron and Michael Amadio scored for the Senators, who are 8-3-0 in their last 11 games.

Stutzle paces the Senators with 50 assists and 71 points in 71 games this season, while captain Brady Tkachuk has a team-leading 29 goals in 69 games.

“I really liked our game,” Senators coach Travis Green said. “We were very resilient in the first period when we took five penalties, and we just kept playing.”

Goaltender Linus Ullmark made 31 saves to improve to 20-13-3 in 38 games this season to go with a 2.78 goals-against average and a .909 save percentage.

“I think we played a lot of good minutes (in Detroit), more than we did in (Tuesday’s 3-2 loss to Buffalo),” said Ullmark, who is 5-2-2 with a .930 save percentage and a 2.33 GAA in nine career appearances against the Blue Jackets.

“(Detroit) is a good team, and they are desperate, but we responded well.”

Saturday will be the first of three meetings between the Blue Jackets and Senators over the next 11 days. The teams will reconvene in Ottawa on April 6 before wrapping up the season series in Columbus on April 8.

The Senators took two of three meetings between the clubs last season, including both matchups in Ottawa.

Columbus travels to Ottawa following a 7-6 shootout win on home ice over the Vancouver Canucks on Friday night.

Kent Johnson scored the shootout winner for Columbus, which erased 3-0 and 5-3 deficits and climbed back into a wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with the win.

“It wasn’t up to our standard; that’s on us for our starts,” captain Boone Jenner said. “I think that’s happened in a few games in a row here, so it’s something that we need to fix going forward. Obviously, it’s not easy when you spot the other team a couple of goals in the first period, so it’s on us. We can start better, but after that I liked how we gathered ourselves.”

Jenner (two goals, assist) and Dante Fabbro (goal, two assists) each had three points for the Blue Jackets (33-29-9, 75 points).

Denton Mateychuk, Mathieu Olivier and Kirill Marchenko each had a goal and an assist in the victory for Columbus.

Marchenko leads the Blue Jackets with 27 goals in 68 games this season, while defenseman Zach Werenski has team-leading totals in assists (50) and points (70).

Netminder Daniil Tarasov, Saturday’s likely starter, is 7-8-2 with an .882 save percentage and a 3.51 GAA in 17 starts this season.

–Field Level Media