The Ottawa Senators will venture south of the border for the first time this season when they play the Utah Hockey Club on Tuesday in Salt Lake City to start a three-game road trip.
Both the Senators and Utah enter Tuesday night’s contest coming off wins over the weekend.
In Ottawa, the Senators defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-4 on Saturday. Drake Batherson scored twice and added an assist in the victory. With three goals in five games, the right winger is tied with Josh Norris and Tim Stutzle for the team lead.
After the victory, Batherson pointed to first-year coach Travis Green and his staff as a key to the Senators’ strong start with three wins in their first five games.
“I think the coaching staff, since Day 1, they’ve done a great job with just the little details on both sides of the puck, and we’re always learning every day, and we got a lot of work to do,” Batherson told reporters. “But the guys are buying in, and it was a big win for us.”
Ottawa is likely to welcome goaltender Linus Ullmark back to the ice for Tuesday’s game. The netminder acquired from the Boston Bruins in the offseason has missed the past three games due to a strain. The Ottawa Citizen reported that Ullmark made the trip out West on Sunday. The team also announced on Sunday that it sent goalie Mads Sogaard, who had been backing up Anton Forsberg this past week, back to AHL affiliate Belleville.
Forsberg had a shaky start as the top goalie for Ottawa. After being pulled from the Senators’ 8-7 overtime victory against the Los Angeles Kings on Oct. 14, he saved 57 of 64 shots faced against the New Jersey Devils and Lightning. He turned aside 25 of 29 shots in the win against Tampa Bay.
“It’s one thing to be the backup goalie; it’s another thing to know you’ve got the net for a little bit,” Green said. “That’s a different scenario in your head, and I was happy for (Forsberg against the Lightning). He held down the fort when we needed him.”
First-year franchise Utah returned to its winning ways on Saturday with a 2-1 overtime victory against the visiting Bruins to end a two-game losing streak. Michael Kesselring scored the game-winner 2:46 into the extra session to give the hosts the win.
After a high-flying start that saw Utah score 16 goals in its first three games, the club has only scored six total over its past three. Forward Clayton Keller leads the team with eight points on four goals and four assists. Dylan Guenther has the team lead in goals with five.
With the victory over Boston, Utah became the first NHL franchise to win its first two home games ever since the Lightning accomplished the feat during the 1992-93 campaign.
Nine players have scored goals for Utah in the team’s first six games, and five players have accrued six or more points during that span.
“I think that’s a strength of our team up front, we have depth,” Utah coach Andre Tourigny said after the win over the Bruins. “There’s four lines that can score every night or can play against everybody.”
