Senators at Jets
Having squandered a bevy of chances to move atop the Atlantic Division race, the Ottawa Senators suddenly are fighting to maintain a grip on second place and home-ice advantage for the postseason. Mired in a three-game losing streak, the slumping Senators continue their five-game road trip with a visit to the Winnipeg Jets on Saturday night.
Ottawa absorbed its seventh defeat in nine games -- three of which came at the hands of division-leading Montreal -- with a 5-1 drubbing by the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night. The Senators lead provincial rival and third-place Toronto by two points with six games to play while Boston is lurking three points back. "Every team goes through a rut, we’ve got to climb out of it as a group," Senators forward Bobby Ryan said. “Luckily, we’ve built ourselves a bit of a cushion. On the bright side, we’ve got to turn that around.” The Jets were eliminated from postseason contention earlier in the week but are showing no signs of playing out the string, taking a three-game winning streak into Saturday's matchup.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, Sportsnet
ABOUT THE SENATORS (41-26-9): Captain Erik Karlsson leads the NHL in blocked shots but his latest one -- at Philadelphia on Tuesday -- proved costly, forcing the star defenseman and team's leading scorer to end his streak of 324 consecutive games played. Center Zack Smith, a 16-goal scorer, also sustained an upper-body injury in Thursday's setback, leaving both players' status unclear for Saturday's matchup. “I don’t know what to tell you, I really don’t,” coach Guy Boucher said after Thursday's game.
ABOUT THE JETS (36-35-7): Winnipeg showed its moxie by rallying from a two-goal deficit in the third period against Anaheim en route to a 4-3 overtime victory on Thursday. “The fact that we’re winning hockey games at this time of year, with nothing to play for, says a lot about the group that we have,” captain Blake Wheeler said. Mark Scheifele scored his career-high 30th goal, giving him 10 points in his last nine games, and also collected a pair of assists in a 3-2 victory at Ottawa on Feb. 19.
OVERTIME
1. Jets D Dustin Byfuglien has six goals and 10 assists over his last 17 games.
2. Senators G Craig Anderson is in a 1-3-2 slump but owns a 12-2-3 mark and 2.37 goals-against average versus the Jets.
3. Jets F Joel Armia has scored on the penalty kill in two straight games, giving him four short-handed goals on the season and 10 overall.