Linus Ullmark saves the night as Ottawa Senators score huge win over Detroit Wings

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Linus Ullmark looked like he would have to steal the two points on his own for the Ottawa Senators.

Then, he had an assist from newly acquired centre Dylan Cozens and a last-second buzzer-beater.

It wasn’t pretty, but a standout effort by goaltender Ullmark, with a 48-save performance helped the Senators steal two points in a 2-1 victory over the Detroit Red Wings in front of a sellout crowd of 18,561 on Monday night at the Canadian Tire Centre.

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The Wings thought they had tied it at the buzzer but it was a no goal because the buzzer had gone.

“It’s hard to describe this one except that it’s an exciting win,” said Ullmark. “It was just a chaotic game. I’m pretty sure we have to look at ourselves in the mirror and say that wasn’t good enough.

“We have to be honest with each other and say that’s not a sustainable game to play if we’re going to keep winning down the stretch. At the same, it takes a lot of the group to find a way to win, which is positive.”

Cozens scored the winner on the power play with 5:04 left in the game. That was his first goal with Ottawa since being traded here from Buffalo on Friday and David Perrons also chipped in with a goal.

“That was an incredible atmosphere tonight. It wasn’t our best but they kept cheering and they kept us in it,” said Cozens.

There were large parts of this game where the Senators didn’t look like they were ready for prime time and Ullmark was the only reason this was close because had one of his best efforts in net all year.

The Senators came into this game with points in four of their last five and had won two straight. This wasn’t one of Ottawa’s better performances because the Wings were all over them.

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Clinging to a 1-0 lead, the Wings finally tied it up on the 39th shot that Ullmark faced. That came on the power play from Detroit’s Dylan Larkin at 2:58 of the third when he beat Ullmark on the blocker side.

LEANING ON LINUS

The fans were on their feet for Ullmark midway through the second as he made a flurry of stops with the Wings pushing. The building was on fire and it may have been these we’ve seen from Ullmark since he got here.

He made 27 stops in the second to match a franchise mark for the most saves in one period.

“He found a way for himself and for us,” Perron said. “You go on the ice with the mentality in our favour again. It didn’t happen that often or enough to get going the other way. He shut the door for us and it looked like he was having fun. It was great to see.”

Ullmark made his eighth consecutive start of the year, which is a season-high. He hasn’t missed a start since Feb. 6 against Tampa Bay but will get a night off in Philadelphia on Tuesday with back-to-back games.

That’s why he’s here. It’s only his 32nd appearance of the season because he missed 19 games with a back ailment. But this is the time of year that the Senators need him to step in and get the job done.

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Ulmark came into this game with a 7-2-2 lifetime record against the Wigs with a 2.15 goals-against average and a .915 save percentage.

Former Senators’ goalie Cam Talbot made the start for the Wings. He came in with an 8-4-0 career record versus Ottawa with a 2.54 GAA and a .914 save percentage.

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IN A BATTLE

The Wings came into this one with five straight losses.

Trailing the Senators by three points for the final wild-card spot in the East, Ottawa had a chance to push the Wings into a deeper hole.

The pace of this game picked up dramatically in the second as the Wings had the Senators on their heel and tried desperately to tie it up.

Perron opened the scoring at 7:39 of the second on the power play. He took a pass from veteran Claude Giroux and fired a blast by Talbot on the stick side that he had no chance on.

“There’s going to be games in the playoffs where you get outplayed bad and you need your goalie to steal you the game and he did tonight,” said coach Travis Green. “I just thought their team played really well and they were on top of us.

“We didn’t play well. We lost a lot of foot races and we weren’t first on the puck. Through it all, when we weren’t playing well, I liked how the bench stayed composed knowing when we weren’t on top of our game.”

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The two clubs played to a scoreless tie in the first and both goalies were tested. The Senators needed to do a better job with second chances on Talbot with shots even at nine.

THE NEW LOOK

Fabian Zetterlund, traded to Ottawa from the San Jose Sharks only 27 seconds before the deadline, made his debut.

The 25-year-old winger started on the fourth line with Adam Gaudette and Matthew Higmore. Green plans to allow Zetterlund to get acclimatized to the Senators and increase his role.

Zetterlund had 17 goals and 36 points with the Sharks but you can also expect him to get opportunities on the power play. He was given a round of applause when he was introduced on the scoreboard.

Talbot made a huge stop on Zetterlund on a perfect setup from Gaudette with six minutes left in the first.

The club made one change on defence with Nikolas Matinpalo returning after being scratched on Saturday. Veteran Travis Hamonic suffered a left leg injury and was unable to suit up.

bgarrioch@postmedia.com

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