OTTAWA — Anton Forsberg made 22 saves when the Ottawa Senators handed the Columbus Blue Jackets their eighth straight road loss, 4-0 at Canadian Tire Center on Tuesday.
Forsberg’s shutout was his first of the season and second in the NHL. He made nine saves in the third period, including one with his skate blade when Columbus forward Emil Bemstrom redirected by a point shot Gavin Bayreuther in the slot at 7:11.
“Feels nice to get the shutout,” Forsberg said. “Good for the confidence.”
Video: CBJ@OTT: Forsberg makes 22 saves in Sens’ shutout win
Tim Stutzle had a goal and an assist, and Claude Giroux had two assists for the Senators (18-17-3), who have won four of five.
“We’ve just got to keep chipping away,” Ottawa coach DJ Smith said. “We want to get back in the pack. That’s our big goal. January is a big month for us.”
Patrick Laine returned after missing two games in the COVID-19 protocol, and Joonas Korpisalo made 30 saves for the Blue Jackets (11-23-2), who have been outscored 31-14 in their past nine games (1-8-0).
“Sometimes the best wins are coming from behind, and we just haven’t seemed to ever find that this year,” Columbus forward Cole Sillinger said. “We haven’t scored the most goals, right? We’re scoring one, two, maybe maximum three goals a game, and it’s tough when you get down 3-0 in the third and you’re trying to fight back. We just have to dig a little deeper and play together.”
Derick Brassard gave Ottawa a 1-0 lead at 2:59 of the second period, tipping in a Jake Sanderson point shot on a power play.
“You don’t give yourself a chance — that’s the problem,” Blue Jackets coach Brad Larsen said. “The first (period) was very even [and] we had some really good looks, but we didn’t score; that’s fine. And then you get down, you get down again and you get down again. So, now there’s no rhythm, you’ve lost all of it.”
Stutzle made it 2-0 at 7:00 when he picked up the puck in the right face-off circle after Giroux won an offensive-zone face-off, cut to the middle and scored glove side.
“Tim’s one of those guys who has confidence and makes plays that not a lot of players can make,” Giroux said. “Right now, he’s got confidence, so we try to get him the puck and we try to get open for him.”
Video: CBJ@OTT: Stutzle extends the Senators’ lead
Stutzle has eight points (five goals, three assists) during a six-game point streak in which he is averaging 23:00 of ice time.
“He’s pretty good,” Smith said of Stutzle. “The edges are unbelievable, obviously. He’s just feeling good. He needs a little rest here. I mean, he’s played lots here — probably too much that you want to play your No. 1 center — but he continues to play well. “
Drake Batherson made it 3-0 at 11:31 when he took a no-look pass from Stutzle, skated into the slot and scored off the bar on a power play.
“We took too many penalties, especially in one period,” Columbus defenseman Vladislav Gavrikov said. “Their power play is pretty lethal, but we’ve got to be better than that. We’ve got to be careful. It’s on us.”
Ottawa, which entered Tuesday fourth in the NHL on the power play (27.7 percent), was 2-for-4 with the man-advantage in the second period.
“You took four [penalties], what do you expect is going to happen against a good power play?” Larsen said. “It’s just silly. They’re all penalties, every single one of them.”
Austin Watson scored at 16:41 of the third period to make it 4-0 when he collected the puck along the boards after a defenseman Travis Hamonic blocked a Laine point shot for a short-handed empty-net goal.
“I think we checked really hard today,” Stutzle said. “Everyone was tracking and, like you see on the last goal, [Hamonic] puts his body on the line there to block a shot from Laine, who has a pretty hard shot. So, that just shows how hard we work as a team.”
NOTES: Laine had two shots on goal, two hits and was minus-1 in 16:12 of ice time. “Legs were good, too many turnovers,” Larsen said. … Giroux extended his point streak to four games (one goal, six assists). … Senators defenseman Erik Brannstrom had one blocked shot in 13:54 of ice time after missing five games with a lower-body injury. … Ottawa had two shutouts in between Forsberg’s two (Dec. 11, 2021), by Matt Murray (Jan. 25, 2022) and Cam Talbot (Dec. 12).
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