Senators vs. Islanders: Linus Ullmark Ties a Franchise Mark as Shane Pinto's Shootout Goal Wins It

Six starts, six wins. Linus Ullmark now shares a piece of Ottawa Senators history, and on Thursday night he needed every ounce of his game to get it. With the Senators' offense sputtering, two goals wiped off the board and an overtime power play coming up empty, Ullmark kept the door shut long enough for Shane Pinto to win it in the shootout.

Pinto's goal was the only one in the tiebreaker, and it lifted the Senators to a 2-1 win over the New York Islanders at Canadian Tire Centre. Ridly Greig scored in regulation, Ullmark made 20 saves, and Ottawa bounced back from a 7-2 beating by St. Louis two nights earlier.

Two Goals That Weren't, and One That Was

If you only watched the first 12 minutes, you would have sworn Ottawa was about to run away with it. Warren Foegele thought he had opened the scoring at 4:50, and the goal was even called on the ice. Video review showed the puck had clipped Semyon Varlamov's shoulder and hit the crossbar without ever crossing the line. Then Stephen Halliday beat Varlamov at 11:54, but the Islanders challenged for offside and won that one too.

"I don't even want to focus on those things," Varlamov said. "Goals, not goals, they didn't score. And it was 0-0 and we came back."

And then the Islanders made Ottawa pay for the near misses. With 12 seconds left in the first, Matias Maccelli swiped the puck off Pinto's stick near the Ottawa blue line, needed only a couple of strides to find a shooting lane and snapped it past Ullmark's glove. It was the hockey equivalent of a pick-six right before halftime.

Ottawa finally broke through late in the second. Artem Zub, in his season debut, sprung Foegele with a long pass, and Foegele turned the rush into a 2-on-1. His saucer pass landed on Greig's tape, and Greig went high over Varlamov's blocker at 15:43. Zub had not played since injuring his knee in Game 1 of the first round of last season's playoffs, per the AP, and he marked his return with an assist.

Overtime on a Knife's Edge

The third period was scoreless, and overtime was where this game nearly tilted New York's way. Ottawa got the first break when Adam Pelech went off for hooking at 1:52, but Varlamov made two saves to keep the Islanders alive.

Then, at 4:01, Dylan Cozens tripped Pelech as he came out of the penalty box and tried to break in on Ullmark. That gave the Islanders a power play of their own in the final minute. Bo Horvat got the lone shot, Ullmark handled it, and the game went to a shootout.

That sequence was the real hinge. If Pelech gets in clean, or Horvat's shot finds a hole, the Islanders walk out with two points and Ullmark's streak ends.

In the shootout, Drake Batherson was stopped, Brayden Schenn was stopped, Tim Stützle missed wide left and Bo Horvat was stopped. Pinto scored in the third round, and Simon Holmstrom could not answer.

Ullmark, Pinto and the Grind

Ullmark stopped 20 of the 21 shots he faced, and per NHL.com, his six-game winning streak matched Ray Emery's 2005-06 run for the best in Senators history. Pinto, who was victimized on the Maccelli goal, got his redemption arc in the shootout.

"Always cool when you could win in the shootout," Pinto said. "But yeah, we grinded that one out. I think just another 2-1 game for us, and Linus played great again."

Varlamov was outstanding in his second start of the season, finishing with 19 saves on 20 shots. "First off, you know, huge game by our goaltender," Islanders coach Peter DeBoer said. "I think everyone wished we could have won one for him, but he was outstanding."

Maccelli's goal extended his point streak to five games, per NHL.com. Zub, meanwhile, blocked six shots in 18:29 on top of his assist.

This was a goalie duel in the truest sense. The Islanders outshot Ottawa 21-20, won 58.8 percent of the draws and threw 23 hits, and still came away with only Maccelli's opportunistic strike. Ottawa generated just enough off the rush to get Greig his goal and leaned on Ullmark for everything else.

The Grind by the Numbers

• 6-0-0: Ullmark's record, a six-game winning streak that matched the best in Senators history, per NHL.com.
• 20 of 21: Shots Ullmark stopped.
• 0-for-7: Combined power-play output, with Ottawa going 0-for-4 and New York 0-for-3.
• 58.8: Percentage of faceoffs the Islanders won.
• 2: Ottawa goals overturned by video review in the first period.

Ottawa Keeps Stacking, New York Keeps Flipping

Ottawa moves to 6-2-0 with 12 points and has won four of its last five. The Senators keep winning without lighting up the scoreboard: four of their six wins this season have finished 3-2 or 2-1. Coach Travis Green liked what he saw. "I thought it was a very complete game," Green said. "I liked a lot of our game tonight. I thought we played fast, played a direct game." He added that his team was close to creating more offensively, "but I thought defensively we were real strong tonight."

Pinto sees the bigger picture, too. "It's still a long year, but I think getting off to a good start is huge," he said. The Senators visit Philadelphia on Saturday, where the Flyers are still searching for their first win at 0-6-3. Ottawa already beat them 2-1 at home on Oct. 8.

The Islanders fall to 3-3-1 with seven points and are still looking for their first road win at 0-2-1. They have alternated wins and losses through their first seven games, a pattern so steady you could set a metronome to it. Next up is a Saturday visit to Toronto, where they lost 2-1 back on Sept. 30. If the pattern holds, they are due for a win.

Streaks Need Ugly Nights

Every great streak needs a night like this one: no style points, a couple of goals erased, a nervy overtime and a shootout to finish it off. Ullmark is not stealing games so much as refusing to give them away. Ottawa fans might want to start doing whatever they did on Thursday again. Hockey superstition has worked on far less.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press; postgame quotes and notes as reported by NHL.com.