Ottawa
Senators fans bowed to goaltender Linus Ullmark after he pulled off a
save-of-the-year candidate against his former team.
With the
Senators leading the Boston Bruins 5-3 late in the second period, Ullmark’s diving
catch led to a stellar third frame in net that helped extend the team’s win
streak to five games in a tight battle for the playoffs.
“Oh my God,
he’s such a stud,” Senators defenseman Tyler Kleven told reporters after the 6-3 win.
After Ottawa
led 4-1 after the first period, the Bruins scored twice in the second period to
reduce the deficit to two goals. Ullmark had a 0.786 save percentage up to that
point in the game with 11 saves on 14 shots.
Boston
controlled possession in the offensive zone with about 90 seconds to go in the
middle frame. As newly acquired center Marat Khusnutdinov and defenseman Andrew
Peeke passed the puck back and forth, blueliner Mason Lohrei found an open lane
to the net on the far side of the ice.
Khusnutdinov
turned toward the net, which led Ullmark to challenge him at the top right corner
of the crease. But Khusnutdinov found Lohrei all alone with the setup for a
one-timer.
Lohrei had
a wide-open net to shoot at from the faceoff dot. Ullmark was nearly out of the
crease when he saw the pass, and Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot could only
stick out his stick and skate to try to block the chance.
As Lohrei connected
with the puck, Ullmark pivoted to angle himself diagonally toward the left post
and swung over. He stretched out his glove hand quickly enough to get in front
of the biscuit right before it entered the crease.
By the time
Ullmark completed the grab, he was almost standing on his head, his left leg sticking
up over his body.
— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) March 14, 2025
“I was laughing,” Ullmark told the media post-game, as reported by Graeme Nichols. “Sometimes
I wonder, how did that happen?”
Ullmark stopped all eight shots after that as the Bruins
outshot the Senators in the final 20 minutes. He even tried to score a goalie
goal on the empty net but missed wide.
“He’s such
a big part of this team, and he wins us a lot of games,” Kleven said. “I’m
honestly not even surprised that that happened – I see it all the time. He’s an
awesome guy off the ice and an even better teammate on the ice.”
It wasn’t a perfect game for the 31-year-old Ullmark, who finished
with a .880 save percentage and minus-1.24 goals saved above
expected, but the game’s second star beat the team that traded him last
June for the second time this season.
His former tandem-mate, meanwhile, only lasted one period in
net on Thursday.
Jeremy Swayman allowed four goals on 15 shots for a .733 SP
as Shane Pinto, Kleven, Drake Batherson and Ridly Greig got on the board. Bruins
interim coach Joe Sacco pulled him in favor of Joonas Korpisalo, who went the
other way in the Ullmark trade with Ottawa. Korpisalo stopped 14 of 15 shots to
keep his team in the game, but it wasn’t enough for the Bruins to complete the comeback.
The Bruins still sit two points behind the Columbus Blue
Jackets for the second wild-card spot, while the Senators are now five points
ahead of Columbus for the first wild-card place.
Get the
latest news and trending stories by following The Hockey News on Google News and by
subscribing to The Hockey News newsletter here. And share your thoughts by commenting below
the article on THN.com.
Read the full article here
