National Hockey League<\/a> playoff spot, but concern surrounded the early departure of Tkachuk with an unspecified ailment with only two games left in the regular season.<\/p>\n\u201cHe just wasn\u2019t feeling well,\u201d head coach Travis Green said.<\/p>\n
Led by a standout 23-save shutout effort from goaltender Linus Ullmark along with two points each from forwards Michael Amadio and Ridly Greig and a goal from defenceman Jake Sanderson, the Senators all but clinched a spot.<\/p>\n
A loss by the Detroit Red Wings by any fashion to the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night would have locked up a spot for Ottawa.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an exciting time. It\u2019s the best time of year,\u201d Greig said. \u201cTwo months ago, it was maybe a little ugly, but our team is confident. We always knew we were going to be in this spot. We just have to keep pushing.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was worry at the end of the second period when Tkachuk left the bench early and headed for the dressing room with athletic therapist Dom Nicoletta.<\/p>\n
New York defenceman Ryan Pulock appeared to catch Tkachuk in the head or neck with a high stick, and the Ottawa captain looked to be in discomfort while getting back to the bench. He had to be helped off the ice by Sanderson<\/p>\n
Tkachuk was back for the third period, but took only one 13-second shift before exiting for good.<\/p>\n
Did you see anything that might have happened?<\/p>\n
\u201cNo,\u201d Green said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s doubtful we\u2019ll see Tkachuk play against the New Jersey Devils on Sunday night at the Prudential Center.<\/p>\n
![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/c9dcb28147edab3b351b84220de2145c.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark makes a save during the second period of the game against the Islanders on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Seventh heaven?<\/p>\n
It was no surprise to see Ullmark make his seventh straight start in net.<\/p>\n
This stretch is why he was brought to the Senators. He has a 5-2-0 record in the past seven games. Now, if the club could get a playoff spot locked up, he could get a week off before the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cGritty from start-to-finish,\u201d Ullmark said.<\/p>\n
The Senators made the most of their chances because they registered only 16 shots on Islanders netminder Ilya Sorokin.<\/p>\n
Ahead 1-0 after 40 minutes despite being outshot 15-9 to that point, the Senators needed another big third-period push. The Islanders were in their own playoff push and also needed the two points, which was why this was a hard, physical game.<\/p>\n
The Senators had a 5-on-3 power play for a stretch of 87 seconds midway through the third period, and they converted the opportunity into a goal to put this game away. Sanderson was on the doorstep to sweep the puck by Sorokin at 12:36, making the score 2-0.<\/p>\n
That was Sanderson\u2019s third goal in three games, and this one couldn\u2019t have come at a better time. Amadio added a clincher into an empty net with Sorokin on the New York bench for an extra attacker.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a really good team over there. They play heavy. They play the right way. They didn\u2019t give us much. We didn\u2019t have a lot of shots. So we just had find a way,\u201d Sanderson said.<\/p>\n
![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/0232a183490e3d22321e7ed496d64c48.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
A scrum between Senators and Islanders players breaks out after Ottawa defenceman Nikolas Matinpalo jousted with New York\u2019s Matthew Schaefer.<\/p>\n
Do-or-die atmosphere<\/p>\n
The Senators and Isles both played with urgency, given the implications of this game.<\/p>\n
A lot has changed with the Isles since the Senators scored a 3-2 victory over New York at home on March 19. Peter DeBoer was in his second game as New York\u2019s head coach following the firing of Patrick Roy.<\/p>\n
The Senators had Isles fans booing their team because New York was having a difficult time creating scoring chances.<\/p>\n
A big part of the Senators\u2019 success in this recent run has been due to penalty killing. The Isles went 0-for-5 with the man advantage, registering only three shots, and Ottawa also scored shorthanded with Greig backhanding the puck past Sorokin in the first period.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur reads were good,\u201d Amadio said. \u201cWe made sure we were pressuring the puck all over the zone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drop the gloves<\/p>\n
This game got off to a familiar start.<\/p>\n
Tkachuk and Isles captain Anders Lee dropped the gloves off the opening faceoff.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust figured we\u2019d do it again. Gave him one in his building. I knew he\u2019d give me one in mine,\u201d Lee said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last games we played against each other are two of the biggest games,\u201d Tkachuk told TSN\u2019s Gord Miller after the first period. \u201cI asked him (to fight), and he respected me. He did the same thing (Saturday), so I want to respect what he brings and what we\u2019re trying to do for our respective starts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nikolas Matinpalo learned the hard way not to touch Islanders star rookie defenceman Matthew Schaefer. They were jostling behind the net when New York\u2019s Kyle MacLean came from nowhere to hammer Matinpalo.<\/p>\n
You don\u2019t see it often, but Drake Batherson took the hit for a slashing penalty that was initially assessed to Claude Giroux.<\/p>\n
The Ottawa bench appealed that it had been Batherson who broke Bo Horvat\u2019s stick, and Giroux, a valuable faceoff man, was spared. Ottawa killed off the penalty.<\/p>\n
Greig opened the scoring with his third short-handed effort of the season and the club\u2019s eighth. He took a pass from Amadio on a 2-on-1 break and beat Sorokin with a backhander at 13:06.<\/p>\n
bgarrioch@postmedia.com<\/p>\n
Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SENATORS 3, ISLANDERS 0 The Ottawa Senators steered their way to a big win on Long Island, but…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":598018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[12361,9726,12717,49,48,41848,742,96530,62091,41846,226717,96254,26752,226716,72244,749,750,199028,20739,744,159010,215895,124695,226715,41847],"class_list":{"0":"post-598017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa","8":"tag-anders-lee","9":"tag-bo-horvat","10":"tag-brady-tkachuk","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-claude-giroux","14":"tag-detroit-red-wings","15":"tag-drake-batherson","16":"tag-ilya-sorokin","17":"tag-jake-sanderson","18":"tag-kyle-maclean","19":"tag-linus-ullmark","20":"tag-matthew-schaefer","21":"tag-michael-amadio","22":"tag-national-hockey-league","23":"tag-new-jersey-devils","24":"tag-new-york-islanders","25":"tag-nikolas-matinpalo","26":"tag-ottawa","27":"tag-ottawa-senators","28":"tag-ridly-greig","29":"tag-ryan-pulock","30":"tag-senators","31":"tag-the-islanders","32":"tag-travis-green"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598017","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=598017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/598017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/598018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=598017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=598017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=598017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}