Ullmark Exits Injured as Senators Beat Panthers 5-1
Ullmark stopped 16 of 17 shots before he was helped off in the third period. Brady Tkachuk scored on his return to Ottawa, and the Senators won anyway.
Key points
- The Ottawa Senators beat the Florida Panthers 5-1 on Wednesday night at Canadian Tire Centre, and lost their goaltender doing it.
- Ullmark was hurt with 16 minutes and 25 seconds left in the third period.
- The night had started as a homecoming story.
The Ottawa Senators beat the Florida Panthers 5-1 on Wednesday night at Canadian Tire Centre, and lost their goaltender doing it. Linus Ullmark left the game in the third period with an apparent lower-body injury and needed help off the ice.
Ullmark was hurt with 16 minutes and 25 seconds left in the third period. He extended his right leg to deflect a puck sliding toward the net with his pad, then slumped over. Trainers came out, and he was helped to the locker room. He had stopped 16 of the 17 shots he faced. Backup Samuel Ersson played the rest of the game.
The night had started as a homecoming story. Brady Tkachuk, the former Ottawa captain traded to Florida in the summer, played his first game in Ottawa as a visitor. Fans booed him when he touched the puck and chanted against him early. The loudest cheer of the opening minutes came when defenseman Artem Zub knocked Tkachuk down with a hit along the boards on his first shift. Tkachuk then scored on a first-period power play to give Florida a 1-0 lead.
Ottawa answered. Tim Stutzle tied the game in the first period, and Claude Giroux and Shane Pinto scored in the second to make it 3-1. Stephen Halliday scored a short-handed goal, set up by Stutzle, with 5 minutes and 3 seconds left in the third to make it 5-1. Ottawa outshot Florida 30-18 and won 60.4 percent of faceoffs.
In the other early NHL final, the Philadelphia Flyers beat the Buffalo Sabres 3-1 in Buffalo.
Why it matters
Ullmark came into the night as an early front-runner for the Vezina Trophy. He had a 1.33 goals-against average and a .945 save percentage in seven starts, with a 6-1-0 record. He led the league in save percentage and was tied for the league lead in wins. Ottawa entered the game 6-3-0, and the win moved the Senators to 7-3-0.
Ottawa has no word yet on how serious the injury is. The team did not announce the nature or the severity of it on Wednesday night. If Ullmark misses time, Ersson takes the net, and veteran Jonas Johansson is the likely recall as the third goaltender.
What happens next
Ottawa plays again on Thursday, at home against the San Jose Sharks. Ullmark's status for that game, and for the games after it, is now the main question around a team that has started the season well.