Senators regain playoff spot, deny Canes division title

Brady Tkachuk scored twice among the final four Ottawa goals as the Senators beat the visiting Carolina Hurricanes 6-3 on Sunday.

Dylan Cozens, Tim Stutzle and Shane Pinto all had a goal and an assist and the Senators picked up a much-needed result to win for the second time in their last six games. Ottawa (40-27-10, 90 points) holds the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Claude Giroux had the other goal -- an empty-netter with 57 seconds remaining -- and goalie Linus Ullmark made 25 saves for the Senators, who tallied two goals on power plays.

Ottawa has consecutive 40-win regular seasons for the first time since 2007-08.

Logan Stankoven, Andrei Svechnikov and Taylor Hall scored for the Hurricanes (49-22-1, 104 points), who lost for only the second time in their last six games. Jackson Blake provided two assists and goalie Frederik Andersen stopped 25 shots. Carolina remained one point away from clinching the Metropolitan Division with five games to play.

The Senators had more shots than Carolina in the first and second periods, then the Hurricanes, who often have high shot totals, to six in the third period.

Ullmark played in his fourth consecutive game.

The game's first two goals came on power plays, first for Stankoven at 5:22 and then for Cozens at 7:17.

The Senators took their first lead 1:34 later at 2-1 on Stutzle's 33rd goal of the season. But the Hurricanes were even by the end of the first period as Svechnikov posted an unassisted goal with 20 seconds left.

Tkachuk's tip-in 8:33 into the second regained the lead for Ottawa. Pinto's goal and Tkachuk's second goal came in the opening 6:32 of the third period. Hall cut the deficit to 5-3 late in the third before Giroux's empty-net tally sealed it for the Senators.

Ottawa defenseman Jake Sanderson, who played in back-to-back weekend games since missing nearly a month with an injury, picked up an assist on the game's last goal.

The Senators improved to 2-1-0 on a five-game homestand.