takeaways: ottawa senators stop three-game skid with road victory over columbus blue jackets
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tim stützle of the ottawa senators celebrates a goal with teammate brady tkachuk during the first period at nationwide arena on december 11, 2025 in columbus, ohio.
jason mowry
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the ottawa senators got up off the mat on thursday night.
the senators were able to stop the bleeding after being swept in a three-game home stand by starting a tough three-game road trip with a 6-3 victory over the columbus blue jackets at nationwide arena.
winger drake batherson led the attack with a goal and two assists, and tim stutzle scored twice as the senators picked up an important two points to try to crawl back into the playoff picture.
claude giroux, michael amadio and david perron also chipped in for the senators, while dylan cozens had three assists. linus ullmark made the necessary stops to allow the senators to halt their three-game losing streak.
“it’s huge,” said winger drake batherson. “you lose three at home, and you come on the road, you want to get off to a good start. that’s what we did tonight. we kind of let them back into the game, but it was a good win.”
not all the news was good. already shorthanded without centre shane pinto and defenceman thomas chabot, the roster took another hit when centre lars eller left the game because of a lower-body injury. he didn’t return for the third period after blocking a shot.
“i don’t know much yet,” coach travis green said.
nothing has come easy for the senators this season as they hit the 30-game mark, but after looking like they may be lucky to get out of columbus with a win, the club shut the door in the third period.
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no lead is safe
the senators need to get their act together and play for 60 minutes.
thankfully, stutzle’s second goal of the game, with a second-effort going to the net to poke the puck past columbus goalie jet greaves with 2:05 left in the second period, gave the senators a 5-3 lead after 40 minutes.
“i thought everybody did a good job tonight,” said amadio, who had a goal and two assists.
up until that point, it looked like the senators were about to collapse. the jackets had owned the play and had closed the deficit to one goal. ottawa wants to be an elite team, but needs to start playing like it consistently.
the jackets refused to go quietly into the night. after the senators pulled out to a 4-1 lead, dmitri voronkov pulled the jackets within a goal on the power play at 8:10 of the second.
at 3:02, dante fabbro fired a blast from the point that ullmark never saw to cut ottawa’s lead to 4-2.
“we had a fantastic first period, and then we kind of gave up an easy one,” stutzle told tsn’s matt cullen after the second. “they came out hard, and they made some good plays.”
showing some finish
the senators had the start they needed on the road.
while adam fantilli scored for the jackets to cut the gap to 3-1, amadio restored the lead to 4-1 with only 34 seconds left in the first period. stutzle extended the lead to 3-0 with his 13th of the season at 14:55 of the first.
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“we played a strong game tonight,” said green. “columbus pushed in the second period, and i thought in our third period we showed more maturity in our game.”
the senators hadn’t scored a 5-on-5 goal in 187 minutes and 13 seconds coming into this game. the senators scored three times on the power play against the devils, but needed to score at even strength.
not only did the senators end the drought with a goal from perron at 6:58 of the first when he pushed the puck through elvis merzlikins’ five-hole with one hand on his stick, but the club quickly opened up a 2-0 lead.
batherson beat merzlikins with a blast 1:13 later. he now has five goals in his last five games.
shifting the gears
with five losses in the last six games, senators head coach travis green moved the furniture around up front again.
green had to try something. captain brady tkachuk moved to play with stutzle and fabian zetterlund. veteran perron was back on the left side of batherson and cozens.
rugged winger kurtis macdermid skated on the fourth line.
but a lot of this is about goaltending.
the senators need ullmark to get back to the top of his game. he just hasn’t been good enough. he makes a big stop, then lets in a goal that he would like to have back, and that has to change.
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in 11 games this season, ullmark has posted a save percentage over. 900, and this was his 23rd start. that’s not good enough. ullmark came into this game with a 7-2-2 record against the jackets in 11 career starts with a 2.08 goals-against average and a .936 save percentage.
the jackets were forced to use both of their goalies. coach dean evason decided he had seen enough when merzlikins gave up three goals on five shots with 5:05 left in the first. greaves came on to finish up.
bgarrioch@postmedia.com
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