Senators close out 2024-25 regular season with 7-5 win against Hurricanes

The 82nd and final game of the 2024-25 season arrived for the Ottawa Senators. The final regular season game for the Senators before their first round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs was against the Carolina Hurricanes.

Both the Senators and Hurricanes each earned a shutout win against each other earlier this season in North Carolina. In the third and final meeting, it would be a high scoring affair on both sides instead of a shutout.

The Senators defeated the Hurricanes 7-5 at Canadian Tire Centre. With the win, the Senators finished the 2024-25 season with a 45-30-7 record, good for 97 points overall.

What some may find shocking is the Senators finished one point behind the defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers with defeating the Hurricanes. In an offensive affair, the Senators' offense came alive in two periods.

In the first period, things couldn't start better for the Senators. In a span of 5:27, the Senators scored three consecutive goals to have a 3-0 lead 17:22 into the game.

The goals were scored by Adam Gaudette, Dylan Cozens and Shane Pinto. The goal by Pinto not only set a new career-high with 21 goals in a season, but an assist awarded to Michael Amadio tied his career-high for points in a season with 27. However, things got ugly for Ottawa after Pinto's goal.

Eleven seconds after Pinto scored to make it 3-0, Jesperi Kotkaniemi scored to make it a 3-1 game. With under 45 seconds to play in the first period, Skyler Brind'Amour scored his first NHL goal to make it a 3-2 game heading into the first intermission. Then, an ugly start to the second period started for the Senators.

In the opening 6:32 of the second period, the Hurricanes scored three goals to take a 5-3 lead into the second intermission. The three goals were scored in a 5:42 span. The worst goal the Senators gave up came off of a Travis Hamonic turnover that led to Tyson Jost scoring to give the Hurricanes a 5-3 lead.

In the third period, the Senators found their offense again by scoring four goals in the period. Gaudette scored his second goal of the game at 4:17 to cut the game to one goal. Gaudette finished the season with a career-high 19 goals. Then, it was time for another Senator to score two goals in the game.

In a 3:37 span, Drake Batherson scored two goals to give the Senators a 6-5 lead. Batherson finished the season with 26 goals and 68 points on the season.

Tim Stutzle scored an insurance goal with 1:12 remaining to extend the lead to 7-5. Stutzle finished the season as the Senators' leading point scorer with 79 points.

Cozens, Batherson and Stutzle each recorded a three-point game. Eleven different Senators recorded at least one point in the win. Despite allowing in five goals, Linus Ullmark made 28 saves to earn his 25th win of the season.

The Senators will start their quest to win the 2025 Stanley Cup on Sunday night when they travel to Scotiabank Arena for Game 1 of their first round series against the Toronto Maple Leafs. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET.

While the Senators are underdogs heading into the series, the Senators did sweep the three-game season series against the Maple Leafs this season. In the three games, the Senators outscored the Maple Leafs 9-3. Two of the wins came in Toronto. 2025 is the first time since 2004 that the Battle of Ontario will happen in the playoffs.