The Ottawa Senators know they will be one of the Eastern Conference’s wild-card teams and hold a significant edge in the regulation wins tiebreaker over the Boston Bruins.
A day after clinching a playoff spot for the second straight year, the Senators seek their season-best fifth straight win when they visit the New Jersey Devils in Newark, N.J.
Ottawa (43-27-10, 96 points) made the playoffs for the first time since 2016-17 when it finished with 97 points last season. The Senators punched their ticket to the playoff again when they earned a 3-0 win over the host New York Islanders on Saturday afternoon and the Devils beat the Detroit Red Wings at night.
Ottawa’s ascension into the postseason is the result of a three-month surge.
The Senators endured a 2-6-1 skid from Dec. 23-Jan. 10 that left them seven points out of the final playoff spot. Since then, Ottawa is 23-8-5 over its past 36 games.
Ridly Grieg scored a short-handed goal and Jake Sanderson scored a power-play goal on Saturday.
“Huge, huge win,” Greig said. “Yeah, 60 minutes. A gritty win, a gritty road win. Yeah, you love to see it.
“It’s an exciting time, the best time of year. Two months ago, it was maybe a little ugly, but our team is confident. I think we always knew we were going to be in this spot.”
The Senators also are tied with the Bruins in points, but their 37 regulation wins are six more than the Bruins. Ottawa also has nine more regulation wins than the Columbus Blue Jackets, who are at 92 points with two games left.
Linus Ullmark has started in goal in each game during the winning streak and made 23 saves.
“The way that the guys battled in front of me, making sure that they didn’t really have any opportunities to set up a long extension time in our own zone, speaks volumes,” Ullmark said. “They did a great job on the entries and everything. When we needed the clears, we got the clears.”
The Devils (41-36-3, 85 points) have dropped their past three home games (0-2-1) but also are a respectable 12-7-1 in their past 20 games.
On Saturday, New Jersey scored three goals in the final 8:42 of regulation in its 5-3 win in Detroit. Cody Glass scored a goal to forge a 3-3 tie before Jesper Bratt gave the Devils the lead with 4:34 remaining in the third period.
“We knew we were going to keep the gas pedal down all night,” Bratt said. “We knew we could play well with our pace, and we got better as the game went along.”
Bratt scored twice and has eight goals in his past 14 games.
Jack Hughes also scored and has 15 goals in his past 18 contests.
“I liked a lot about our game today,” Devils coach Sheldon Keefe said. “It took us a while to get going, but I thought we dominated the second period, and we had them on their heels in the third period.”
