Sharks score six, ease past Senators for first regulation win

OTTAWA -- Collin Graf and Jacob Trouba each had a goal and an assist, and the San Jose Sharks defeated the Ottawa Senators 6-2 at Canadian Tire Centre on Thursday.

Nolan Allan and Tyler Toffoli scored, and Kiefer Sherwood had two assists for the Sharks (6-4-1), who won their first game in regulation this season. 

“Maybe a little bit of a mixed bag here tonight, but you know, good teams find ways to win,” Graf said. “There's been some comments from people, you know, looking for regulation wins, so it's nice to finally get that.”

Yaroslav Askarov, who was 0-4-0 in his previous four starts, made 41 saves.

“Thought our goaltender was great,” San Jose coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We were under siege for the majority of that game. So, I think he made some big saves at big times.”

Tim Stutzle and Jordan Spence scored for the Senators (7-4-0), who defeated the Florida Panthers 5-1 in Brady Tkachuk’s return to Ottawa on Wednesday, but have lost two of their past three games. Samuel Ersson made 22 saves.

“I think we play like a pretty good game for a lot of stretches,” Ersson said. “Especially after their score, their fourth one. I think we take over and like we dominate for the whole third period too, so lots of good things. Obviously, it (stinks) with the result, but I think like for the team-wise, it's a lot of good things to take forward.”

Stutzle gave the Senators a 1-0 lead on a delayed penalty at 6:16 of the first period. Stutzle came on the ice as the extra attacker, received a cross-ice feed from Drake Batherson in the left face-off circle and buried a wrist shot five-hole on Askarov.

Carter Yakemchuk appeared to make it 2-0 at 11:26, but video review determined that the puck hit the left post and crossbar and never crossed the goal line.

Allan tied it 1-1 at 11:04, beating Ersson over the glove into the top-right corner.

San Jose scored a power-play, short-handed and even-strength goal in a 4:05 span in the second period to take the lead.

“Obviously last night's game was really big, but coming into this game, you know, it was going to be a challenge, especially on a back-to-back,” Spence said. “And I think all the back-to-backs we had, we've lost. So we wanted to kind of come prepared, mentally and physically ready. And like I said, we did a lot of good things, but there's some little things that you know with turnovers and everything that they created opportunities and capitalized on it. So we just got to move on.”

Toffoli put the Sharks up 2-1 at 9:13 of the second period with a power-play goal when his long-distance wrist shot got past Ersson through traffic in front.

Graf scored while short-handed at 12:00 to make it 3-1. He stripped the puck from Stephen Halliday in the defensive zone and began a rush up the ice. After dropping the puck back to Ty Dellandrea, Graf dove in front to tap in the return pass into an open net.

“I think it was, you know, a bit of a bobbled puck, and for us that means go,” Graf said. “Just pressure and 2-on-2 with 'Dell,' and I think we just sort of had a little bit of silent communication about a little cross-and-drop play, and a great pass by him, and just put it in the open net.”

Trouba extended the lead to 4-1 at 13:18. Graf drew three Senators into the left corner before finding Trouba alone in front for a quick tap-in.

Askarov made 18 saves in the second, highlighted by a diving glove save on Batherson at 18:04 to preserve the three-goal advantage.

“That was a super-quick play,” Askarov said. “I know I was late, and I was like, 'Just dive to the right side.'"

On his reaction to the save, Dellandrea said: “Unbelievable, unbelievable. ... I had an up-close view, and it was unbelievable.”

Spence cut the deficit to 4-2 at 6:24 of the third period. Fabian Zetterlund sent a saucer pass to Spence, who buried a wrist shot from between the circles.

“We did everything we had,” Zetterlund said. “Some nights it's not going the right way, and tonight was one of them.”

Zack Ostapchuk scored a short-handed empty-net goal at 16:31 to make it 5-2, and Ivar Stenberg added another empty-net goal for the 6-2 final at 19:43.

“I thought we played a pretty good game; thought we shot ourselves in the foot,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said. “… It’s just one of those games, we found a way to lose it.” 

NOTES: It was the first time the Sharks have tallied multiple short-handed goals since Dec. 7, 2023 (6-5 overtime win at the Detroit Red Wings). ... San Jose forward Igor Chernyshov exited the game with 3:49 remaining in the first period after blocking a Nikolas Matinpalo slap shot off his left arm. He will be evaluated Friday. "He's gonna be out here a little bit," Warsofsky said. ... Senators goalie Linus Ullmark was placed on injured reserve Thursday after leaving Wednesday's game against the Panthers with a lower-body strain. ... Stutzle extended his point streak to three games (two goals, two assists). ... Jonas Johansson was recalled from Belleville of the American Hockey League earlier in the day and dressed as the backup to Ersson.