'You go back to why you play the game. Every person that plays the game wants the chance to win the Stanley Cup.'

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SENATORS 4, BLUE JACKETS 0

The Ottawa Senators are on the verge of booking their ticket to the National Hockey League playoffs.

The wait is nearly over.

The Senators extended their winning streak to three straight as Linus Ullmark made 30 stops to record the club’s 10th shutout of the season in a 4-0 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Sunday night.

Goals by Shane Pinto, David Perron, Nikolas Matinpalo and Adam Gaudette sent the 15,816 at the Canadian Tire Centre home with wide smiles as the Senators closed out a four-game homestand.

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“I thought we played a really complete game,” said coach Travis Green.

The Senators haven’t been in the playoffs since 2017, and this is the closest they’ve been since then at this point in the season. It will be official if they beat the Jackets on Tuesday in Columbus.

“It’s very important to them,” Green said. “You go back to why you play the game. Every person that plays the game wants the chance to win the Stanley Cup. That’s why you play.

“Every person in this league has a nice life, but every person wants a chance to win a Cup. The first step is you’ve got to make the playoffs to have a chance, and our group is hungry to have that chance.”

It has been too long since the Senators hosted a playoff game, and everybody here knows it.

“That is what we’ve aimed for all season,” said Ullmark. “You’ve got to love it. That’s all there is to it.”

It’s not hard to sense the excitement at the rink, and getting this wrapped up early would allow the club to rest some players.

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Ullmark returned after backing up Anton Forsberg in Saturday’s visit by the Panthers.

This was his 17th start since Feb. 22. He had posted a 3.17 goals-against average and a .900 save percentage in 16 starts.

This was his second start against the Jackets in 10 days. He made 28 stops in the club’s 3-2 victory over Columbus at home on March 29. Ullmark has a 6-2-2 lifetime record versus the Jackets.

Ullmark made the necessary stops. He wasn’t tested a lot, but was there when they needed him. It would have been a little easier if the Senators had been able to give him some more goal support.

Zach Werenski did hit the post early in the third, but Perron’s ninth of the season at 4:32 put this one out of reach.

“We say most of the time you have to respond to a loss, but we said we had to respond after a win,” said Ullmark. “We couldn’t take anything for granted.”

PIVOTAL SERIES

This was a difficult turnaround for the Jackets, who were coming off a 5-0 loss in Toronto on Saturday night.

The Senators needed to be better than they were in wins over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday and the Florida Panthers on Saturday. The club gave up way too many chances and spent too much time in its end.

This was the club’s fourth straight game without captain Brady Tkachuk, and some wondered if the Senators would be able to win without him. They did a solid job in this one.

After Columbus goalie Elvis Merzlikins took over less than five minutes into the game with Ottawa holding a 2-0 lead, the game slowed considerably, and the Senators did a good job of locking it down.

Still, the Senators have to show a little more killer instinct when they have a team in this position.

Through two periods, the Senators were 0-for-3 on the power play.

They didn’t do much with a 5-on-3 for 23 seconds in the second. If they had scored with any of those man advantages, the Jackets wouldn’t have stood a chance of coming back.

QUICK STRIKE OFFENCE

The Senators got off to the kind of start they needed, and outshot the Jackets 14-9. We also witnessed one of the quickest goalie pulls we’ve seen in this building.

Only 4:26 into the first, Columbus coach Dean Evason determined he’d seen enough of goaltender Daniil Tarasov after the Senators scored twice on only five shots.

Matinpalo scored the first of his career by beating Tarasov with a backhander into a wide-open net. That was a result of poor defensive coverage, but you also need to get a save.

“I was alone in front of the net, I don’t know why, but the puck was bouncing and I just put it in,” said Matinpalo with a smile.

That meant Merzlikins, who gave up five goals on 27 shots in Toronto, was summoned to take over. The Jackets hadn’t even registered a shot, and it’s the second time in three games that Evason has made a change.

Tarasov didn’t look good on the opening goal by Gaudette. He fired a shot from the top of the slot that found its way through Tarasov, and it was Gaudette’s first goal since Feb. 3 to end a 23-game drought.

The Senators are 33-6-0 when scoring first this season.

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