Nilsson, Stone lift Senators past Jets

OTTAWA --Anders Nilsson made 44 saves for the Ottawa Senators to hand the Winnipeg Jets their third straight loss, 5-2 at Canadian Tire Centre on Saturday.

"He's been good ever since he got here," Senators forward Mark Stone said of Nilsson. "I think he's given us a chance to win every game he's been in there. … He]*
"Winnipeg is a really good team and a heavy team to play against," Nilsson said. "They pushed us back in the third a little bit, but I like the way we managed it and how we played in our zone. I felt like we didn't panic, we protected the middle really good."
Bryan Little and Brendan Lemieux scored, and Laurent Brossoit made 27 saves for the Jets (34-18-3), who have lost three straight for the first time this season.
"To be honest, I didn't like many of the goals that I let in today," Brossoit said. "I didn't think that they were necessarily great shots. I don't think I really forced them to beat me.
"It's a tough feeling to put a lot of pressure on your team to score, what, six to win the game. It's, of course, a game that I'm going to put behind me and move forward."

The Senators took a 1-0 lead at 2:57 of the first period when Stone scored on a wrist shot from the top of the right face-off circle. Ryan Dzingel made it 2-0 at 12:21 with a wrist shot from the left face-off dot.
Little one-timed a cross-ice pass from Patrik Laine on a 2-on-1 to cut it to 2-1 at 2:00 of the second period.
"I kind of feel like, where he's at right now, he's actually looking to pass more than shoot, which, we're trying to get him to shoot even more because I feel like that's how you break out of those things," Little said of Laine, who hasn't scored in 10 games. "But it was a great pass right on my tape, great saucer pass, so I'm not complaining, but as a whole, I think we want him to shoot more."
Stone scored a power-play goal to make it 3-1 at 9:50. Duchene scored on a loose puck in the crease to make it 4-1 at 12:39.

Zack Smith scored with a snap shot from the slot to make it 5-1 at 15:20 of the third period.
Josh Morrissey's wrist shot went in off Lemieux to make it 5-2 at 19:17.
"If we consider ourselves one of the elite teams, we should be in that category for a reason. Our best should beat other teams' best," Jets captain Blake Wheeler said.

They said it

"It was a big step in the right direction, compared to the [5-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday]. Did a lot of things we didn't do in that game; played with speed, we spent the bulk of this game in their end." -- Jets captain Blake Wheeler
"They had a lot of puck possession tonight, but I think we did a pretty good job of keeping them to the outside. And when they did get breaks inside, we had a pretty hot goaltender tonight to bail us out."-- Senators forward Zack Smith

Need to know

Forward Kyle Connor and defensemen Dustin Byfuglien and Tyler Myers each had five shots on goal to lead the Jets. … Senators forward Brady Tkachuk had a game-high seven hits. … Ottawa coach Guy Boucher said Nilsson will start again Tuesday against the Carolina Hurricanes.

What's next

Jets: At the Buffalo Sabres on Sunday. (3 p.m. ET; MSG-B, TSN3, NHL.TV)
Senators: Host the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday. (7:30 p.m. ET; TSN5, RDS, FS-CR, NHL.TV)