Ottawa Senators miss Linus Ullmark in loss to Winnipeg Jets

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For half a game, the Ottawa Senators did just fine without injured goalie Linus Ullmark.

It didn’t last.

Helped by a couple of soft goals that should have been stopped by Ullmark’s replacement Mads Sogaard, the Winnipeg Jets, the National Hockey League’s top team, dumped the Senators 4-2.

“We played a good game, but it wasn’t good enough. I’m not happy we lost,” Senators coach Travis Green told TSN 1200’s Gord Wilson. “I’m not taking a lot of positives out of it. We need to be a little better in certain areas.”

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“It’s one of those games where you feel like you had a chance to win the whole game,” Senators centre Tim Stutzle, who scored one of the Ottawa goals,” said.

Ullmark, whose back tightened up during Ottawa’s 3-1 loss to Edmonton Dec. 22, didn’t make the road trip with the Senators. He had been spectacular in the past few weeks. In his absence, Ottawa’s netminders are going to need to step up … and be better.

Both Ottawa goals came on the power play.

Ottawa took a 2-0 lead and looked good doing it. But the Jets, especially their top line of Mark Scheifele, Kyle Connor and Gabriel Vilardi, came on strong.

The Senators opened the scoring with 9:20 left in the first period on a cross-crease pass from Drake Batherson to Stutzle.

Sogaard was tested late in the period with sustained pressure by the Jets.

Vilardi took a dumb double-minor penalty for high sticking 2:33 into the second period and Ottawa capitalized, taking a 2-0 lead when Thomas Chabot’s shot from the point was deflected into the net by Ridly Greig.

The Jets made it 2-1 with 7:14 left in the period on a one-timer by Connor.

With 4:59 left in the second, Scheifele fought off a backcheck to backhand the puck past Sogaard.

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After Sogaard took a tripping penalty 9:07 into the third period, the Jets made the Senators pay. After a beautiful tic-tac-toe play, Vilardi banged a shot into the net on the power play.

Winnipeg took a two-goal lead with 8:41 left, when Nikolaj Ehlers beat Sogaard stick side after some bad defensive play by Ottawa.

“We were playing the best team in the league,” Chabot said. “We made a few mistakes, those are most likely to end up in the back of your net, unfortunately.

“Everybody’s pissed off we lost. Twenty-four hours later we get a chance to play again and face another good team. So, we move on and get ready for Sunday.”

A SHOW STOPPER: Sogaard’s stats with Belleville of the American Hockey League look rather meh; he had a 0-3-1 record in six appearances with a 3.24 goals-against average and .877 save percentage.

In his only NHL appearance of the season heading into Saturday, he allowed four goals in a bit more than half a game in Ottawa’s 8-7 win over the Los Angeles Kings.

Ottawa outshot Winnipeg 34-23. Sogaard made some good saves, but he was outplayed by Winnipeg’s Connor Hellebuyck.

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“I thought he was fine,” Green said. “It’s easy to critique a goalie when you lose, I’m not going to do that.”

ROADIES: Remember a year ago when the Senators did a big belly flop in December, losing six straight at one point, with head coach D.J. Smith fired in the midst of the skid?

Yeah, despite Saturday’s defeat, it’s been a different story this December as Ottawa tries to chase down a playoff spot in the NHL’s Eastern Conference.

The Senators play Game 6 of their nine-game road swing Sunday in Minnesota.

TURN UP THE POWER: The Senators went into the game ranked eighth in the NHL on the power play (23.7-per-cent conversion rate), but had been struggling. They went 2-for-4 with the man advantage Saturday.

“I like that they scored, it’s been a long time coming,” Green said. “But we had to find a goal 5-on-5.”

“We wanted to get another one when it was 2-2 and we had another power play,” Stutzle said.

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