Rising Senators head home to meet slumping Sharks

The Ottawa Senators will look for their fourth win in five games when they host the San Jose Sharks on Saturday night.

Ottawa comes in off a stirring 3-2 overtime win against the host New York Rangers in Friday that earned them a split of the home-and-home series. The Senators' past two wins havecome in OT.

Brady Tkachuk tied the game for the Senators in the final minute of regulation and then won it with 18 seconds remaining in overtime.

Tkachuk scored his 100th and 101st career goals and added an assist and a fight with New York's Jacob Trouba to complete the Gordie Howe hat trick in his 300th NHL game.

"It was definitely memorable," Tkachuk said of the milestone contest. "Everybody stepped up tonight. It was a huge game for our confidence."

Tkachuk has 11 goals on the season and four in his past four games.

Tim Stutzle also scored for the Senators and Cam Talbot made 25 saves, including stopping Mika Zibanejad on a breakaway in overtime.

Stutzle has four points (two goals, two assists) in his past four games.

The Senators will be playing on consecutive nights for the first time this season as they open a brief two-game homestand.

"We're battling, that's three (wins) in a row now on the road," Senators coach D.J. Smith said. "We've got to do that at home, treat the fans to that exact effort. We forechecked as hard as we have in a while against a really good team."

San Jose comes in having lost four of five (1-3-1) despite a solid effort in a 3-1 loss to the host Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday. Toronto took a 2-1 lead with 2:27 left in the third period and then added an empty-net goal to secure the win.

Matt Nieto scored the only goal for the Sharks, who dropped to 1-1-0 on a four-game road trip that started with a win over the Montreal Canadiens on Tuesday and concludes Sunday in Buffalo.

"It's tough," Nieto said. "Everyone in this room thinks we played good enough to at least get a point (against the Maple Leafs). It's just unfortunate we give up one late and we're clawing back with two minutes to go and just can't seem to get one. So, that one hurts."

San Jose goalie Aaron Dell, in his first NHL start in 10 months, made 29 saves on Wednesday. Dell was called up from the AHL with James Reimer unavailable due to a lower-body injury.

Reimer was placed on injured reserve Monday, but he and forward Nico Sturm, who missed the past six games with a head injury, are both with the team.

Defenseman Erik Karlsson leads the Sharks with 32 points (11 goals, 21 assists), finally enjoying good health after an injury-affected season that saw him miss 32 games in 2021-22.

"He's worked extremely hard to get himself ready for this season," Sharks captain Logan Couture told NHL.com. "I don't know if it's revenge against anything. I think it's just a proud player wanting to show himself and teammates that he can be a dominant player in the league, and that's what he's doing."

--Field Level Media