Ullmark gets much-needed confidence boost as Senators look to find consistency

Ottawa – When a goaltender doesn’t face a shot for over 24 minutes, you worry about the next one sneaking past him, but not with Linus Ullmark. Seconds into overtime, the Ottawa Senators goaltender made his first save since the second period with an outstanding sprawling kick on the Bruins’ Elias Lindholm’ shot to save the game.

Off the rebound, the puck went straight onto the stick of Senators’ captain Brady Tkachuk, who rushed down the ice to score the winning goal with a rocket shot over Ullmark’s former Bruins teammate Jeremy Swayman. 3-2 Senators final.

"We don't get the two points if it's not for Ullmark's save in overtime there and I mean just what a save at the right time,” said Tkachuk.

The entire Senators team swarmed Ullmark after the conquest of his former team. Ullmark and Swayman had tag-teamed the Bruins to the best regular-season hockey in NHL history in 2022-23, when Ullmark won the Vezina Trophy.

Poetry in emotion.

“Not gonna lie, it was a lot, especially during warmups,” said Ullmark. “I had goosebumps going out there and hearing the crowd again. And also, just getting to win in this barn is not easy. And it's something you dream of."

Early in the game, Ullmark was serenaded with a video tribute by the Boston Bruins.

“It meant a lot,” said Ullmark. “I'm never going to take it for granted. I'm very happy for it and humble for it as well.”

The saves—and the win—are unfamiliar to this Senators team, which has won just two games in its last ten outings at Boston Garden.

In fact, a big part of their failures in Boston has been the Senators’ lack of consistent goaltending without a clearcut No. 1 goaltender. The team bet big on Ullmark in the off-season, trading first-round pick Mark Kastelic as well as Joonas Korpisalo for Ullmark. The team then extended him to a four-year, $33 million contract a day before the season: a large wager on the towering six-foot-four Swede.

However, Ullmark has had an uneven start to the season. He entered the matchup against Boston with a .892 save percentage, well below his standards. In October, when Ullmark returned from a muscle strain against the Vegas Golden Knights, he allowed five goals and blamed himself for the loss. In his last start before the Boston game, against Buffalo, he allowed five goals again.

When Sportsnet.ca asked him last week where his game was at, Ullmark said “I do not know, I don’t know if it’s in a good place or a bad place.”

Take a look at his numbers compared with his previous two seasons with the Bruins:

According to MoneyPuck

That disappointing start put his coach Travis Green in the uncomfortable position of having to reiterate to reporters ahead of the game versus Boston that Ullmark was still his number one. Green had alternated starts between Ullmark and Anton Forsberg in the previous seven games.

“Linus is our starter. Forsberg is our backup. They know that,” said Green. “Forsberg has also had two shutouts in three games, and has played pretty well. Linus is still finding his game. I think it's coming. I like what I've seen in practice. It's as simple as that.”

Against Boston, Ullmark was steady when he needed to be, saving all three high-danger chances according to Moneypuck.com, and stopping 14 of 16 shots, including a sprawling glove save on Kastelic in the second period.

After the game, Ullmark was cautious about his game.

“Still don't know where it's at. It was good enough."

However, the Senators made it easy for their star goaltender on Saturday except for a stunning 15-second stretch during which they lost the plot, allowing two goals to fall behind 2-1.

Overall, on Saturday, the Senators bought into the motto that Ullmark set early in the season.

“In this league, it's all about not losing two in a row, and that's the mindset we've got to have,” he said.

Led by Brady Tkachuk, who had 18 shot attempts in the game and 12 shots on goal, the Senators dominated the Bruins in the third period outshooting them 12-0.

“He’s a monster,” said Ullmark about the captain, who scored his eighth career overtime winner, a Senators franchise record.

Ottawa out-chanced Boston 66 to 37. Boston has been terrible in the third period this season, and they set an unenviable record against Ottawa, failing to record a single shot.

“Wow. Really? Oh, I think that's the first time that we’ve done that since I've been here,” said Tkachuk.

If the Senators are serious about the playoffs, they will need both their leaders, Ullmark and Tkachuk, to continue to be consistent in their play and lead by example.

“It's a statement game, sort of speak,” said Ullmark. "And we just have to learn that this is the sort of game that we have to play every single night, and not just sometimes here and there."

“We don't want to do what we've done this last week, (which) is taking a couple steps forward and a couple steps back,” said Tkachuk. “We just want to keep the momentum going,

Ullmark, in particular, needed the boost in confidence.

A win is just a win, until it’s not.

Bad trend:

The only blemish in the Senators’ win against the Boston Bruins was that they went from a 1-0 lead to a 2-1 deficit in 15 seconds in the second period. The Bruins scored two goals to turn the game into a bear claw. It’s part of a disturbing trend that has plagued the Senators all season: Goals in pairs.

If the Senators eliminate their mental lapses in short spurts, they could start to string together some streaks.

Tidbit:

Michael Amadio scored his first goal as an Ottawa Senator to snap a 13-game goalless drought to begin his tenure in Ottawa. Amadio, who was signed on a three-year, $7.8 million contract by Steve Staios, had been snake-bitten, producing no goals on 18 shots before Saturday.

“It took a few games longer than I would have liked, but it was nice to get the monkey off the back there,” said Amadio.

Earlier this week, Amadio decided to change his fortunes with a simple yet stereotypical hockey tradition. He told Sportsnet.ca that he was changing socks.  And then he scored.

Moral of the story: superstitions work.