March had arrived for the Ottawa Senators. In February, the Senators closed out the month on a low by losing five consecutive games.
The Senators began March with hosting the San Jose Sharks, a team they had defeated 4-3 in San Jose on Nov. 27 in the first meeting of this season. With a new month to change their luck, the Senators finally responded and got their confidence back.
With 2015 Senators hero Andrew Hammond returning, the Senators defeated the Sharks 5-3 at Canadian Tire Centre to improve to 30-25-4 on the season. The five-game losing streak ended and the season sweep against the Sharks is complete.
Prior to the game, it was announced that Brady Tkachuk, Josh Norris and Shane Pinto would all return to the lineup. One of them would make an immediate presence in their return.
After coming out of the first period strong with firing shots against Linus Ullmark, the Sharks found themselves on a powerplay. After a turnover in the Senators end, Ridly Greig was able to feed a pass to Pinto after he got the puck out of the zone, and he would score his 12th goal of the season.
Shorthanded specialist Shane Pinto right back to his old tricks 😛#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/fvxK1I5u0S
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) March 2, 2025
Even with a 1-0 lead after the first period, the Sharks took over in the second period. Tyler Toffoli and Timothy Liljegren each scored a powerplay goal in a 4:30 span to give the Sharks a 2-1 lead heading into the second intermission.
Momentum was not on the Senators' side with trailing at the start of the third period, but the Senators got a late powerplay in the second period that carried over into the third period. Then, the Sharks received a delay of game penalty. It was then time for the captain to make an impact in his return.
Tkachuk scored a 5-on-3 powerplay goal to tie the game at two. It was Tkachuk's team leading 22nd goal of the season. Tkachuk's goal was the start of a third period onslaught as just 1:34 later, a friendly bounce happened.
Greig dumped the puck in the Sharks zone and it took a friendly bounce right to Tim Stutzle. With Sharks goaltender Vitek Vanacek out of position, Stutzle capitalized and scored with the net open to give the Senators a 3-2 lead. Stutzle extended his point streak to 11 games. Then 5:31 after Stutzle's goal, David Perron scored his second goal of the season to extend the lead to 4-2.
"Luck is just opportunity meeting preparedness" - Tim Stützle#GoSensGo pic.twitter.com/6SsJicixmg
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) March 2, 2025
Will Smith did score the Sharks' third powerplay goal of the game with under 1:30 remaining in regulation to cut the Senators lead to 4-3, but Michael Amadio scored an empty-net goal to ice the game just 28 seconds later to make it 5-3.
Ullmark not only made 34 saves to earn his 13th win of the season, but has now won all seven of his starts against the Sharks in his career.
The Senators will return to action on Monday night when they face the for the Washington Capitals for the third and final time this season, except this match-up will be at Capital One Arena. In both meetings in Ottawa this season, each game was decided in overtime.
Alex Ovechkin scored the overtime winner in the Jan. 16 meeting. Exactly two weeks later, Thomas Chabot scored the overtime winner in the second meeting.