Ottawa Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark has made 73 saves through two games for his team, including a 46-save effort in Monday’s double overtime loss to the Hurricanes.Karl B DeBlaker/The Associated Press
Never has the game of inches seemed so slim.
The Ottawa Senators, in losing 3-2 in double overtime to the Carolina Hurricanes in Game 2 of their opening round Stanley Cup playoff series, hit posts and crossbars and even whiffed a shot on the open Carolina net.
This, after a Game 1 loss in which a Senators’ tying goal was ruled in by the on-ice officials in Raleigh and overruled by the off-ice officials in Toronto.
In losing that opening match 2-0 and the second game by one goal in double overtime, the Senators find themselves down two games to one with Game 3 scheduled for Thursday back in Ottawa.
Call it digging a hole, behind the eight ball, up against it, between a rock and hard place, on the ropes – or, to paraphrase what a number of shaken fans posted, screwed.
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It is not, as many scattering fans might believe, impossible at this point. In the multiple Stanley Cup playoff rounds of the past five springs, teams have been down by two games some 25 times. Only five times did the team mounting a comeback go on to take the series, the last being the Florida Panthers against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the conference semi-final almost a full year ago.
The Panthers then went up by two games against the 2025 Hurricanes. Carolina tied the series but could not close it out. Florida went on to defeat the Edmonton Oilers in six games and claim its second straight Stanley Cup.
The Senators know what it is like to be down by two games in a series. It’s happened 11 times now since the team returned to the National Hockey League in 1992-93. The last time was last year, when they ultimately fell to their nemesis, the Leafs, in six games in the opening round.
It is a cliché to say that any game going to double overtime could go either way, but this was most certainly the case on Monday in Raleigh.
While trailing 2-0 may feel like a punch to the face for Senators fans, Roy MacGregor sees reason to think the team can get back into the series as it shifts to Ottawa.Karl B DeBlaker/The Associated Press
Ottawa goaltender Linus Ullmark, the team’s greatest problem around Christmastime, has become the team’s greatest asset as spring blossoms.
He had little-to-no chance on Carolina’s first goal when the Hurricanes, on a power play thanks to a poor penalty by Senators captain Brady Tkachuk, were able to go ahead on a good goal by Logan Stankoven.
The Hurricanes went ahead 2-0 after usually reliable Tim Stützle coughed up the puck in his own end and gave Carolina a two-on one break, with Sebastian Aho scoring.
All along, Ullmark was making one superb save after another. Inspired by their goaltender, the Senators mounted a comeback, with Drake Batherson scoring while in tight to the Carolina crease and Dylan Cozens scoring on a weak shot from the corner. It was a goal that Hurricanes goaltender Frederik Andersen should easily have stopped.
With roughly 15 seconds left in regulation time, Ullmark made a brilliant stop on Carolina captain Jordan Staal, thereby forcing the game into overtime … and then a second overtime.
Ottawa might well have won the match in the first overtime when Stützle clipped a shot off the Carolina goalpost. Carolina then thought they had won in the first overtime when Mark Jankowski scored on Ullmark. So certain were all present that the game was over that the stands began emptying and even Senators management left, only to have to scramble back to their perch for an unanticipated second overtime.
Instant replay had shown that the Hurricanes were offside when they entered the Ottawa zone and the goal was disallowed. In a turn of events that can only be described as “weird” Carolina’s Jordan Martinook was awarded a penalty shot on a play that had taken place after the offside. Martinook was stopped by Ullmark on the penalty shot. However, Martinook would later score on a screened shot in the second overtime to give his team the 3-2 win.
It marked the first double overtime for Ottawa since Game 7 of the 2017 Eastern Conference final, which they lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins. The Penguins moved on to the Stanley Cup final, where they defeated the Nashville Predators in six games.
Ullmark clearly outplayed Andersen in Game 2. Now, if only his teammates could also rise to the occasion.
Ottawa Senators centre Tim Stützle may be haunted by a Game 2 giveaway that led to a Carolina goal and a shot that hit the post later in the night.Karl B DeBlaker/The Associated Press
The Ottawa goaltender made 43 saves in the game, several of them spectacular.
“He kept us in,” Batherson told reporters, “and we were able to tie it up.” Such a dramatic, prolonged loss, however, had to “sting,” in the words of Ottawa head coach Travis Green. Three posts and multiple other bad bounces negated the fine play of Ullmark, who has gone, remarkably, from being maligned in 2025 to celebrated in 2026.
In Green’s opinion, it “felt like they controlled the first half of the game and felt like we controlled the last half.”
That, then, is the thin line of hope the Senators will carry into Game 3, in which they will enjoy last change on the ice and delirium in the stands, not to mention the ticketless supporters in the special Red Zone party area outside the Canadian Tire Centre.
“We know we can beat this team,” said Cozens after the Game 2 loss.
“It stings right now, but you just have to have a short memory.”
Au contraire; these Senators need to remember what happened Monday night in Raleigh. They fell behind 2-0. They came back. They very nearly triumphed.
And Linus Ullmark is back in net.