Luukkonen Earns Shutout as Sabres Defeat Senators 4-0 – The Hockey Writers Ottawa Senators Latest News, Analysis & More

The Buffalo Sabres (16-21-5) defeated the Ottawa Senators (19-18-3) by a core of 4-0. With two goals from Jack Quinn and three points from Ryan McLeod, the Sabres had their offense showing up, and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen stopped all 35 shots for his sixth career shutout and second of the season.

Game Recap

After a lengthy nine-game road trip, the Senators were looking to come out of the gates hot, but it was the exact opposite. The first penalty of the game went to Brady Tkachuk, who hit Sabres forward Jason Zucker from behind. Frankly, Tkachuk was lucky to have only been given a two-minute penalty for charging, but it could have been more. Zucker would return later in the first period.

The Senators killed off the start of the penalty before drawing a hooking call on Quinn, making it four-on-four. Quinn scored his first goal of the game shortly after the game was back to full strength. After a brief stretch of Senators pressure, Quinn and Ryan McLeod broke through for a 2-on-0 break, and Quinn buried the first goal of the game with assists coming from McLeod and Zach Benson, who started the breakout.

Quinn would find himself in the box just a few minutes later after getting caught with another hook on Tim Stutzle, but after a big Sabres penalty kill, he was sprung on a breakaway and beat Anton Forsberg with a shot going above the blocker for his second goal of the game. Assists on that goal came from Peyton Krebs and McLeod.

Early in the second period, Senators defenseman Nick Jensen had a tough turnover as he tried to send the puck across the ice, Dylan Cozens picked off the pass and beat Forsberg to give the Sabres a 3-0 lead. At that point, the Sabres had scored three goals on just nine shots, but Senators head coach Travis Green opted to keep Forsberg in the game.

Halfway through the middle frame, McLeod throws a pass across the middle of the ice in the Senators’ zone, and it directs off of Thomas Chabot, and goes over Forsberg to extend the lead to 4-0.

There was a good amount of back-and-forth action through the first half of the third period, but no results for either side. Halfway through the period, Brady Tkachuk and Dennis Gilbert dropped the gloves behind the play. Tkachuk was given the extra penalty as the instigator and was sent to the locker room early.

The Senators are back in action on Jan. 11 as they hit the road and take on the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the Sabres will host the Seattle Kraken on the same day.