Ullmark stops 29, Senators blank Maple Leafs in Game 5 to stay alive again

TORONTO -- Linus Ullmark made 29 saves for the Ottawa Senators, who avoided elimination for the second straight game with a 4-0 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference First Round at Scotiabank Arena on Tuesday.

The shutout was Ullmark's first in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in his 15th career postseason start. After allowing 12 goals on 65 shots through the first three games of the series, he has given up only three on 63 shots in the past two.

“It doesn’t really matter in a playoff series how you’re doing, you can lose 1-0, you can lose 6-2, it’s still a loss,” Ullmark said. “My job is to stop pucks and every night it’s all about battling it out with the other goalie on the other team, try to make more saves than the other guy and come out victorious. Sometimes I’d say it comes down to lady luck when it comes down to certain different areas of the game, but you have to earn it.”

Toronto leads the best-of-7 series 3-2. Game 6 will be in Ottawa on Thursday (7 p.m. ET; CBC, TVAS, SN, TBS, MAX).

Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stutzle each had a goal and two assists for the Senators, who are the first wild card from the Eastern Conference.

“It took everybody,” Tkachuk said. “Our best player tonight was Linus, who made some huge saves for us, but it took everybody on the bench, everybody in our room. Everybody wanted to win. Our will to win was high and I think it paid off.”

Anthony Stolarz made 15 saves for the Maple Leafs, who are the first seed from the Atlantic Division and are 1-13 in their past 14 games where a win would have eliminated their opponent.

“They capitalized on two chances and we seemed a little snakebitten getting pucks by Linus tonight,” Stolarz said. “At the end of the day, if you were to tell us before the series we’d be up 3-2 going back to their place, that’s a position that we’ll take.”

Ullmark stopped John Tavares on a breakaway at 4:45 of the first period to keep it scoreless. Chris Tanev then outmuscled Ottawa forward Drake Batherson at the side of the net at 18:58 with the Senators on the power play, preventing him from tapping in a loose puck in the goal crease.

Toronto outshot Ottawa 12-4 in the first period.

“I thought we started well, good chances,” Maple Leafs forward Auston Matthews said. “I thought, just, the execution at times wasn’t there. Obviously, they get the first goal and we’re just kind of chasing the game from there, but I thought we did good things. But in the end, there’s little plays, execution -- it’s the small details. They made good on their chances and here we are.”

Thomas Chabot gave the Senators a 1-0 lead at 3:46 of the second period. After Stutzle won an offensive zone face-off against Matthews, Chabot’s shot from the blue line deflected off Matthews in the slot past Stolarz’s blocker.

“He couldn’t see it,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “So, first of all, we can do a better job off that face-off and we’ve got to have a block there or we’ve got to have guys clearing the net out in front of the net so we can see the puck. One of the two.”

Ottawa maintained its lead at 15:26 when Ullmark stopped Mitch Marner’s shot from the slot.

“Not surprising,” Senators coach Travis Green said of Ullmark’s play. “I feel like I’ve been talking about Linus a lot this series and we’ve got a lot of confidence in him and rightfully so. He was sharp again tonight.”

Dylan Cozens scored a short-handed goal to make it 2-0 at 8:24 of the third period. Matthews attempted a pass from below the goal line to Marner at the point that was intercepted by Adam Gaudette, which led to his 2-on-1 pass in the slot to Cozens, who scored glove side.

“Gaudette made a great read and picked it off,” Cozens said. “It was good poise by him to let me get up the ice and he made a great pass. I just shot it and it went in. It was a great play by Gaudette.”

The Maple Leafs’ best chance in the third period came when Matthews hit the left post at 14:48.

“We had chances to score, didn’t capitalize on our chances,” Tanev said. “They scored the goal and then defended well and won the special teams, which has obviously been a thing every game. Special teams has been a huge part of the game. And it will continue to be Thursday.”

Stutzle scored into an empty net at 17:09 to push it to 3-0, and Tkachuk also scored an empty-net goal at 19:13 for the 4-0 final.

“It’s been a tight-checking series,” Green said. “I don’t think it’s just these last two games, we played pretty well in the games before that, but I do think our individual game and collectively, our game has gotten better. I think part of it is from not playing in the playoffs before and feeling a little more comfortable.”

NOTES: Ullmark became the second goalie in Senators history with a shutout in a game where his team was facing elimination, joining Craig Anderson (Game 4 of 2015 First Round). … Tkachuk (three goals, three assists) became the first Senators player with at least four points through his first five career playoff games since Mark Stone (four assists in five games from 2012-15). … Matthews, Marner and Matthew Knies each were minus-4 for the Maple Leafs.