Sens top Canucks in Murray’s second shutout
OTTAWA 3 VANCOUVER 0
VANCOUVER — Matt Murray collected his second shutout of the week Thursday as the Ottawa Senators blanked the Vancouver Canucks 3-0.
Murray had 31 saves in the victory and extended the Sens’ win streak to three games. He also backstopped Ottawa to a 4-0 decision over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday.
Drake Batherson had a goal and an assist for the Senators (17-26-4), and rookie Tim Stutlze scored his eighth of the season on a first-period power play. Connor Brown added an emptynet strike to close out the game.
Thatcher Demko stopped 22-of-24 shots in his first game back from Vancouver’s’ COVID-19 outbreak. The Canucks goalie last played on March 24.
Vancouver (18-19-3) still has a 4-1 edge in the nine-game season series between the two teams.
Ottawa remains at the bottom of the North Division standings, a single point behind Vancouver. The Canucks have seven games in hand.
Vancouver pulled Demko with three minutes to go. Brown buried a shot on the empty net with 90 seconds left on the clock.
The Canucks outshot the Senators 31-25 over the course of three periods.
After a shaky first, Vancouver pressed in the middle frame, outshooting the Sens 12-7 across the period.
Murray made some big stops to preserve Ottawa’s lead, including a beautiful glove save on Quinn Hughes where he snatched the puck out of mid-air.
The win marked the 26-yearold goaltender’s second shutout of the season and the 13th of his career.
Batherson put the Sens up 2-0 with a power-play marker before the end of the opening period Thursday. A puck trickled through the legs of Vancouver’s Tyler Myers, stationed at the top of the Canucks crease, and Batherson quickly pounced, firing it in to the yawning net for his 16th of the season.
It was Ottawa’s second powerplay goal of the period. Stutzle was credited with the first 9:17 into the game when Nick Paul’s shot from the top of the left face-off circle hit the skate of the rookie as he leapt up in front of the net, pinging off the post and in.
The Sens were 2 for 4 with the man advantage on Thursday while the Canucks failed to capitalize on four power plays.
TORONTO 5 WINNIPEG 3
WINNIPEG — Maple Leafs goaltender Jack Campbell admitted that Toronto’s five-game winless skid was starting to weigh on the team. The arrival of Nick Foligno put a charge into the lineup Thursday as the club got back in the win column.
Playing on the top line with Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner, Foligno helped build the play that led to Toronto’s fourth goal and assisted on Marner’s empty-netter as the Leafs beat the Winnipeg Jets 5-3. Marner finished with two goals and an assist as the North Division-leading Maple Leafs (29-13-5) moved six points up on the second-place Jets in the standings.
“Getting Nick in the lineup put some fire in our belly,” Campbell said. “We were all ready to go.” — CP