{"id":579333,"date":"2026-04-03T09:55:18","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/579333\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T09:55:18","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T09:55:18","slug":"ottawa-senators-move-into-wild-card-spot-prevent-buffalo-sabres-from-clinching-in-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/579333\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa Senators move into wild-card spot, prevent Buffalo Sabres from clinching in win"},"content":{"rendered":"

OTTAWA \u2014 Lars Eller<\/a> scored the winner at 5:55 of the third period and Linus Ullmark<\/a> made 21 saves as the Ottawa Senators<\/a> gave life to their playoff hopes with a 4-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres<\/a> on Thursday night.<\/p>\n

Dylan Cozens<\/a> also scored while Ridley Greig and Shane Pinto<\/a> added empty-net goals as the Senators (39-26-10) moved back into the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

Greig provided an assist on Cozens\u2019 goal for a two-point night.<\/p>\n

Ottawa\u2019s victory prevented Buffalo (46-22-8) from clinching its first playoff berth since 2011, the longest drought in the NHL.<\/p>\n

Mattias Samuelsson<\/a> scored the lone goal for the Sabres and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen<\/a> stopped 20 shots.<\/p>\n

Eller gave the Senators a 2-1 lead by tipping Artem Zub<\/a>\u2019s shot for his fifth of the season.<\/p>\n

The Sabres pulled Luukkonen with 2:39 remaining and Greig iced the game 21 seconds later before Pinto added a second empty-netter.<\/p>\n

Buffalo opened the scoring midway through the second period when Samuelsson beat Ullmark glove side with a wrist shot from the top of the circle.<\/p>\n

Ottawa tied it with former Sabre Cozens tipping a Brady Tkachuk<\/a> shot from in close.<\/p>\n

A scoreless first provided plenty of action.<\/p>\n

Their blue line already depleted, the Senators lost defenceman Tyler Kleven<\/a> six minutes into the game after he exited from a Bowen Byram<\/a> shot to the face.<\/p>\n

Tkachuk was assessed a penalty from the bench after slashing Beck Malenstyn<\/a>. The Senators captain later dropped the gloves with towering defenceman Logan Stanley<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Takeaways <\/p>\n

Senators: Managed to hold off the Sabres with just five defencemen after Kleven left the game. The Senators were already without Jake Sanderson<\/a>, Thomas Chabot<\/a>, Nick Jensen<\/a>, Dennis Gilbert<\/a> and Carter Yakemchuk<\/a> on the blue line. Ottawa native Cameron Crotty<\/a> was recalled from the AHL\u2019s Belleville Senators on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Sabres: Had a solid first period but didn\u2019t keep the same pressure through the final 40 minutes.<\/p>\n

Key Moment<\/p>\n

With five seconds remaining in the second period, Ullmark made a crucial sliding save on Byram.<\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

Senators: Host the Minnesota Wild<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Sabres: Visit the Washington Capitals<\/a> on Saturday.<\/p>\n

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 2, 2026.<\/p>\n

Lisa Wallace, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA \u2014 Lars Eller scored the winner at 5:55 of the third period and Linus Ullmark made 21…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-579333","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-ottawa","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}