RALEIGH — Just under three weeks ago, the Ottawa Senators couldn’t figure out how to get one past Hurricanes goalie Spencer Martin, who earned his first career shutout.
Linus Ullmark returned the favor Friday night.
The Ottawa goalie made 32 saves for his second shutout of the season in a 3-0 Senators win Friday at Lenovo Center.
Outside of Shane Pinto’s goal following several failed clears at 4:04 of the second period, Carolina goalie Pyotr Kochetkov (19 saves) had matched Ullmark save for save until Nick Jensen snuck one past five-hole with just over five minutes left in regulation to double the Senators’ lead.
But the soft goal getting past Kochetkov was hardly the most glaring issue: Carolina has now gone three straight games without a 5-on-5 goal from its forwards.
“We’ve got a couple guys — guys we’ve been saying this for a while — who have got to be a little more around it,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said.
One is Andrei Svechnikov, who finished without a shot attempt for the second time this season — the other was the 8-2 Halloween blowout win over the Bruins.
Svechnikov has just one goal and seven of his 24 points at 5-on-5 this year.
The other is Sebastian Aho, who also has just two goals and 10 points at 5-on-5.
“I’ve gotta be better, no question about it,” Aho said. “But at the same time, I think we’ve got to find some chemistry between the linemates as well, and especially the nights that you’re not feeling it.”
Brind’Amour has shuffled his lines looking for ways to spark Aho, Svechnikov and the rest of his forwards, and the results — other than on the scoreboard — were better Friday than in recent games. The Hurricanes had two-thirds of the game’s five-on-five shot attempts and nearly doubled the Senators in high-danger chances.
But the wave-after-wave consistency that has become Carolina’s hallmark in recent seasons has been missing.
“I think we’re a little bit one and done and not really getting on our forecheck and just kind of having heavy shifts, heavy shifts after heavy shifts,” Hurricanes captain Jordan Staal said. “There’s a few sporadic ones here and there. When you start taking over games is when you start putting three or four and getting calls after and wearing teams down.
“There’s times where you see it, but not consistent enough.”
It’s a stark contrast from mid-to-late November when Carolina was down to No. 3 goaltender Martin and was outscoring many of its defensive issues. In the last seven games, however, the Hurricanes have struggled to find offense outside their power play, which was 0 for 2 Friday.
Brind’Amour still cautioned against sacrificing defensive structure for more offense.
“You don’t want to start opening things up,” he said. “That’s definitely been our problem. So I thought this time it was a good step in the right direction. That game could’ve easily gone our way.”
The Senators took advantage of Carolina’s inability to get the puck out of its end to open the scoring at 4:04 of the second period.
Failed clears by Eric Robinson, Dmitry Orlov and Jesperi Kotkaniemi led to Pinto having a chance in the slot, and the Ottawa center buried the puck past Kochetkov for a 1-0 lead.
“We had the puck, we didn’t get it out, and then they put it to the net and it finds a way in,” Brind’Amour said.
Jensen scored late in the third as the Hurricanes — who outshot Ottawa 14-5 in the third period — pushed for the equalizer, and then Pinto scored an empty-netter with 47 seconds left to seal the win for the Senators.
“It’s not always easy, not always going your way, and especially that’s the time when you need to grind one out,” Aho said. “I’ve got to be better and, obviously, our line has got to be better.”
Notes: Jack Drury did not play after undergoing surgery on his hand Thursday. Carolina recalled Tyson Jost from AHL Chicago, and Drury is expected to miss at least a few weeks. … Necas was minus-3 and had his four-game point streak end.
