Ottawa Senators close out season series with fourth straight loss to Buffalo Sabres

Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark is scored on by Buffalo Sabres forward Alex Tuch (89) after he lost sight of a rebound during first period at Canadian Tire Centre last night. Photo by Justin Tang /The Canadian PressArticle content

SABRES 5, SENATORS 2

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The Ottawa Senators should be thrilled they’ve seen the last of the Buffalo Sabres.

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The Senators closed out their season series against the Sabres with a 5-2 loss in front of 16,446 on Thursday night at the Canadian Tire Centre and posted 0-4-0 record against Buffalo this season.

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Only veteran winger Claude Giroux and Jake Sanderson were able to beat Buffalo goalie James Reimer, who made 33 stops in the win.

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Goaltender Linus Ullmark didn’t get much offensive help, but wasn’t at his best either. The Senators were outscored 17-5 by the Sabres this season, and that’s nothing short of inexplicable.

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“You’re going to have games like that,” Giroux said. “It wasn’t our best game, but we didn’t play that bad. We had our chances. It’s frustrating for sure. We know we need to tighten up a few things.”

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The Senators have a 99 percent chance of making the playoffs with eight games left, but they should take nothing for granted. This was one of those nights where their best players had to be better.

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The Sabres have been one of the National Hockey League’s worst third-period teams, and the Senators didn’t have enough of a push to get back into the game when they were trailing by two goals.

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Ryan McLeod put it away into an empty net.

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Payton Krebs extended the Sabres’ lead to 4-1 at 9:59 of the third, but Sanderson closed the gap only 23 seconds later with his ninth of the campaign by beating a screened Reimer

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Most of the night, Ottawa had far too many missed shot attempts.

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GET INTO THE GROOVE

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The Senators had posted a .667 winning percentage at home coming into this game, and they’d better take advantage of that fact.

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This is a tough week for the Senators with the Tampa Bay Lightning visiting on Thursday, the Florida Panthers on Saturday and the desperate Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday.

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The Senators need to get desperation back in their game, and it has to happen quickly.

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No surprise to see Reimer for the Sabres. He made 32 stops in Buffalo’s 3-2 victory over Ottawa last week. He had posted an 18-6-4 lifetime record versus the Senators with a 2.54 GAA and .925 save percentage.

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“It doesn’t matter who you play. You want to play the right way and give yourself a chance to win,” Giroux added. “Anytime you leave some points on the table, it’s definitely disappointing.”

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It doesn’t help that Reimer gets a chance to see every puck and the club has got to be harder to play against. The shots were 20-13 for Ottawa through 40 minutes.