Jiri Smejkal and Jakob Chychrun scored first-period goals to propel the visiting Ottawa Senators to a 3-1 win over the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.
Ottawa (37-41-4, 78 points) posted its third win in four games to end the season.
Smejkal collected his first NHL goal while Anton Zub also scored for the Senators. Ottawa goalie Anton Forsberg was a rock, making a whopping 22 of his 34 saves in the third period.
An assist on Chychrun’s goal gave Brady Tkachuk his 349th point with the Senators, moving him past Mike Fisher for ninth on the franchise’s all-time list.
Boston (47-20-15, 109 points) got a third-period goal from Pavel Zacha but lost control of its own destiny in the Atlantic Division title race following a second defeat in as many games.
Linus Ullmark made 17 saves for Boston, which closed the regular season by losing three of the final four games.
The Bruins had a 35-20 shot advantage.
After limiting Boston to three first-period shots, Ottawa officially took control with two goals in a 51-second span just past the midway mark of the game.
Smejkal broke the scoreless deadlock at 10:03 of the second period, taking Erik Brannstrom’s feed from the top of the circles and sliding a shot five-hole on Ullmark from the left dot. The puck was confirmed to have crossed the goal line following a video review.
The Senators made it 2-0 at 10:54. Chychrun buried another shot from the left circle after a loose puck in the neutral zone turned into Drake Batherson and Tkachuk making a pretty passing connection during a three-on-two break.
Forsberg was equal to the task of Boston’s immediate pressure to begin the third period, stopping a Zacha one-timer and making a following glove save on Jake DeBrusk within the opening couple of minutes.
Boston didn’t draw its first power play until the 12:03 mark of the third, and Zacha took advantage 41 seconds in when he potted the rebound of a Kevin Shattenkirk point shot with a backhander at the right crease.
Forsberg made multiple key saves during a late four-on-four, including robbing Charlie McAvoy on a point-blank shot after DeBrusk’s feed to the back post with 4:34 left.
The Senators netminder also backed a penalty kill in the final four minutes, which resulted in Zub’s short-handed empty-netter off a David Pastrnak turnover with 1:48 to go.
–Field Level Media
