Brady Tkachuk left the game early with an unspecified ailment, but the Ottawa Senators still beat the New York Islanders 3-0 at UBS Arena on Saturday. Linus Ullmark stopped 23 shots for the shutout, Ridly Greig and Michael Amadio each finished with two points, and Jake Sanderson scored as Ottawa kept its push alive.
The win became enough when the Detroit Red Wings later lost 5-3 to the New Jersey Devils on Saturday night, sealing Ottawa’s trip to the playoffs for the second straight year. The Senators were within inches of clinching before Detroit made it official, and with only two games left in the regular season, the result removed the last bit of doubt.
Coach Travis Green said Tkachuk “just wasn’t feeling well,” a line that offered little comfort to a team with the postseason now secured but still facing questions about its captain’s status. Greig said, “It’s an exciting time. It’s the best time of year,” and added that two months ago things “maybe [were] a little ugly,” before stressing that the group stayed confident and “always knew we were going to be in this spot.”
For Ottawa, the timing matters as much as the result. The Senators clinched after the Detroit outcome and now have two games left to sort out whether they can carry this momentum into the playoffs with Tkachuk’s condition still unknown.