Ullmark makes 27 saves, Senators shut out Maple Leafs

Linus Ullmark made 27 saves for the Ottawa Senators in a 3-0 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.

The shutout was Ullmark’s ninth in the NHL and his first since being acquired from the Boston Bruins on June 24.

“It’s always nice getting a win, it doesn’t matter which team it is,” Ullmark said. “We haven’t really played our best on the road this year (3-5-0) except for last game against Boston (a 3-2 overtime win on Saturday), so it’s good we backed it up tonight.

“Very mature throughout the game. I thought we did a great job of doing the things that we talked about prior to the game, sticking with the game plan. A good prescout, and when everything comes together and you see that if you’re paying attention before the game and you are doing the things you need to do during the game, everything is going to work out basically. With that comes a lot of decision-making, and I thought we were very poised with it most of the game.”

Josh Norris, Tim Stutzle and Michael Amadio scored for the Senators (8-7-0), who have won two in a row. Artem Zub had two assists.

“Like I’ve said multiple times this year, I’m really confident in our group. I think we can beat any team, and especially if we play that way, I think we are really hard to play against,” Stutzle said. “Great game by Ullmark, he really kept us in the game. I’m just really happy the way we played and the team effort we gave tonight.”

Anthony Stolarz made 38 saves for the Maple Leafs (9-6-2), who had won three in a row.

“Not a good game for us,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “There wasn’t much good to talk about in the game overall. We got outskated, they wanted it more than us. That’s the bottom line.”

Norris scored 41 seconds into the first period to give the Senators a 1-0 lead. He took a pass from Claude Giroux on a 3-on-2 rush and scored glove side from the right hash marks.

Stutzle made it 2-0 at 3:12 of the second period, beating Stolarz under his blocker from the low slot after receiving a pass from Drake Batherson, who was along the left boards.

Stutzle has seven goals in 15 games this season after scoring 18 in 75 games last season.

“I worked really hard this summer,” Stutzle said. “Obviously, I wasn’t happy with the way I played last year, the way the season finished. I think it’s a different mindset this year, just trying to win as many games as we can, and it helps when our guys keep scoring.”

Amadio scored 43 seconds later to push the lead to 3-0 at 3:55. He carried the puck into the offensive zone on a 2-on-1 before electing to shoot short side from the right circle.

“We just got really away from our game,” Maple Leafs forward John Tavares said. “Clearly they had some good legs early. Our legs weren’t great and we didn’t manage the game very well. We just got away from what was bringing us success. Just disjointed and we really weren’t able to build any momentum throughout the night.”

Toronto has scored only one goal at 5-on-5 in its past five games.

“Tonight we didn’t have the puck, so it’s pretty tough to score any goals when you don’t have the puck,” Berube said. “They had the puck the whole game pretty much until the third period. We have to generate more attempts at the net with people at the net and create offense that way.”

Morning Skate

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