Ullmark makes 24 saves, Senators hand Penguins 7th straight loss

OTTAWA -- Linus Ullmark made 24 saves, and the Ottawa Senators handed the Pittsburgh Penguins their seventh straight loss with a 4-0 win at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday.

“He looked dialed in from the start,” Senators coach Travis Green said of Ullmark. “Had to make some big saves, especially in the third, which is usually the case when a team is down and pressing. He looked good tonight.”

It was Ullmark’s first shutout of the season and the 13th of his NHL career.

“Really good, really confident, really calm,” Ottawa center Tim Stutzle said of Ullmark. “Really fun to watch.”

Brady Tkachuk scored twice, Drake Batherson had two assists, and David Perron and Claude Giroux also scored for the Senators (16-13-4), who are 3-1-0 in their past four games.

“The guys were hounding pucks down low, they’re getting it deep, they’re staying patient, they don’t get frustrated,” Ullmark said. “You see it there in the second as well when their goalie’s doing a terrific job of keeping them in it. I mean, it could’ve been five, six, seven goals against there with the way we were playing and the opportunities that we got.”

Arturs Silovs made 22 saves for the Penguins (14-10-9), who are 0-3-4 during their skid.

“Obviously, they were pressuring hard,” Pittsburgh coach Dan Muse said of Ottawa. “I just think some of the support there to be able to relieve some of that pressure, it wasn’t consistent enough. We were spending too much time there in the D-zone and then I think even when we got onto the offensive side of the ice, we could’ve done some things to extend that time more than we did.”

The Penguins' last win came on Dec. 4, when they defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 4-3.

“We’re going to have to grind it out,” Pittsburgh defenseman Kris Letang said. “Try to play a team game. Obviously, right now, it’s not a great feeling, but we have to stick together and battle it out.”

Tkachuk scored on the power play to give the Senators a 1-0 lead at 2:16 of the first period. He finished on a behind-the-back pass from Batherson at the edge of the crease.

“Every guy played hard to play against,” Tkachuk said of his teammates. “We didn’t give up too much. Of course, in a game, you’re going to give up chances, but I felt like we limited a lot of chances on the inside. They had a couple tips, a couple little bounces around the net, but I think overall, I really do believe we played a good game that we can build off of and create that consistency every single game.”

Jordan Spence’s centering pass redirected in off Perron’s skate to make it 2-0 at 1:34 of the second period. It was Perron’s 800th NHL point.

“I think we’ve got to be a little bit tighter,” Penguins captain Sidney Crosby said. “You look at the chances we got, we had to earn them. I just think that we’ve got to be a little bit tighter as far as not giving up quality chances. ‘Arty’ made some saves to keep us in it and we weren’t able to get back in the game.”

Giroux extended it to 3-0 at 4:50. Ridly Greig’s pass got caught on Michael Amadio’s left skate and slid directly to Giroux, who scored five-hole on Silovs in front.

“They’re a fast team and they stretch the zone really well,” Letang said. “I just think we never really got to our game with a lot of pressure and extended zone time. It was hard to sustain.”

Tkachuk scored into an empty net for his second goal of the game at 13:55 of the third period for the 4-0 final.

“That was a great team win, top to bottom,” Green said. “I liked our game right from the drop of the puck.

“It’s pretty close (to textbook hockey). We played pretty solid. We talked about playing a 200-foot game, defensively, offensively. The guys were ready to play tonight, for sure.”

NOTES: Crosby remained one point shy of tying Mario Lemieux for both the Penguins franchise point record (1,723 points) and eighth-most points in NHL history. … Stutzle, who played in his 400th NHL game, extended his point streak to five games with a secondary assist on Tkachuk’s opening goal. He has 10 points (four goals, six assists) during the streak. … Ullmark is seventh in shutouts among Sweden-born goaltenders, behind Henrik Lundqvist (64), Tommy Salo (37), Jacob Markstrom (24), Johan Hedberg (22), Robin Lehner (17) and Filip Gustavsson (14).