‘Always on top of you’: Senators fall 2-0 to stifling Hurricanes in Game 1

The sequence would be as close as the Senators would come Saturday. Ottawa now heads back to the drawing board in search of a breakthrough.

Andersen finished with 22 saves after Logan Stankoven and Taylor Hall got pucks past Linus Ullmark at the other end as the Hurricanes picked up a 2-0 victory to take a 1-0 lead in the teams’ best-of-seven playoff series.

“We played a really solid game,” said Ottawa captain Brady Tkachuk, who fought Carolina opposite Jordan Staal three seconds after the opening faceoff in a tone-setting tilt. “There weren’t many chances on both sides.”

Batherson wasn’t sure in the moment if the puck had indeed crossed the line with Andersen, who picked up the first playoff-opening shutout in franchise history, in a desperate full stretch at his post.

“It happened so quick and the ref called it a goal,” he said. “You never know nowadays until they come out of that penalty box and rule it a goal or not. I probably should have just put it in. Shouldn’t have gotten to that point.”

Ottawa head coach Travis Green hadn’t watched the replay when he addressed the media.

“Probably won’t look again either,” he said. “Didn’t count … it’s not going to count tomorrow.”

A tumbling Andersen followed that up by robbing Tkachuk while on his backside shortly after the Batherson goal reversal.

“It’s best-of-seven for a reason,” Tkachuk said. “There’s gonna be a lot to learn.”

The Senators, who will look to even the series Monday before the teams travel north, had just nine shots through 40 minutes, and will need to generate more against the stifling Hurricanes to stay in this grinding fight.

“Always on top of you,” Tkachuk said of Carolina’s chokehold defensive structure. “Always in right spots. They blocked a lot of shots there, especially at the end, but all game they’re sacrificing their bodies. They don’t give you much. They frustrate the whole league.”

“Man-on-man all over the ice,” Batherson added. “They’re in your face every second.”

Stankoven opened the scoring on a fanned effort that fooled Ullmark in the second before Hall added Carolina’s second on a dog pile in the crease after the initial attempt handcuffed Ottawa’s netminder in the third.

“Felt like I got such a good piece of it that it was going to end up in front of me,” Ullmark said of the 2-0 goal. “And when it didn’t, and all of a sudden you feel like people hit you from behind, you’re thinking, ‘Oh, it’s there.’ So, you’re looking, unfortunately, the other way, and that’s when they capitalize.”

Senators defenceman Jake Sanderson said other than a few tweaks, his team doesn’t need to change much following a contest that included 96 hits — with Carolina holding a 57-39 edge.

“We weathered the storm great in the first,” he said. “It’s a really hard barn to play in, never mind playoffs.”

The Senators allowed the fifth-fewest goals against from Jan. 1 onward, while the Hurricanes ranked eighth.

Green expects more of what was on display in Game 1.

“I don’t think the series is ever going to look like there’s a ton of space,” Green said. “It’s going to look very similar every night. They’re gonna forecheck hard. We’re gonna forecheck hard.

“At the end of every game, both teams are gonna feel like there wasn’t space … I don’t see that changing.”

INJURY CONCERN

Already minus bruising defenceman Tyler Kleven, the Senators lost top-pair stalwart and Sanderson foil Artem Zub to an undisclosed injury in the first. Green did not have an update post-game.

“Plays big minutes,” Sanderson said of the shutdown blueliner. “I rely on him a lot. Haven’t seen him yet, but I hope he’s OK.”

GLOVES OFF

Tkachuk tangling with an opposing captain off the opening draw is nothing new. The gritty winger fought Anders Lee of the New York Islanders twice in the same situation over the last month.

“Got the energy going,” Tkachuk said. “Got playoffs started for the whole league.”

FIRING BLANKS

Ottawa’s power play, which ranked eighth in 2025-26, generated just one shot over its first three chances before getting more rubber at Andersen in the third.

“Very aggressive,” Batherson said of the league’s 11th-best penalty kill. “(We) got more comfortable the last one, had a few good looks. We were just getting our feet wet. Probably the nerves are there in the first couple.

“We’ll be better going forward.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 18, 2026.

Joshua Clipperton, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

‘Always on top of you’: Senators fall 2-0 to stifling Hurricanes in Game 1

What's Trending