Senators' Shane Pinto scores shootout winner in thrilling win over New York Islanders

This night was about redemption for the Ottawa Senators.

Coming off an ugly 7-2 loss to St. Louis at home on Tuesday, the Senators needed to get back on a winning track or at least to the point where they gave themselves a chance to win on Thursday night.

The Senators made their point.

The effort was better for the Senators and so was the result in a 2-1 shootout victory over the New York Islanders in front of 14,534 at the Canadian Tire Centre.

Centre Shane Pinto, who grew up in Long Island, scored in the skills contest to secure the win.

Only Ridly Greig scored for the Senators in regulation. This was the second time in eight games this season that the Senators have been forced to work overtime.

Ottawa went 0-for-4 on the power play, including failing to capitalize in OT.

The Senators were a lot better for 60 minutes than they were for the final period of the loss to the Blues. This was a difficult game between two well-coached teams and space was hard to find.

The game did open up a touch in the third period as both clubs pushed to try to break the 1-1 tie. Linus Ullmark and Isles goaltender Semyon Varlamov didn’t face a whole lot of work, but they made the necessary stops, which allowed this to go the distance.

After a lacklustre effort on Tuesday, Green shifted his line combinations around in an attempt to get more offence.

Fourth-line centre Stephen Halliday played on the right side of Tim Stutzle and Drake Batherson, while Dylan Cozens was between Andre Burakovsky and Claude Giroux.

Nick Cousins was with Shane Pinto and Michael Amadio. The fourth line consisted of Warren Foegele, Fabian Zetterlund and Greig. Green had to do something because this club needed some offence.

“We’ve been known to change the lines up around here,” Batherson said before the game. “It’s nothing new. We’ll see how it goes.”

The Senators looked like they got the message.

Foegele and Greig were buzzing. They had opportunities, but didn’t cash in until Greig tied it up 1-1 on a perfect feed from Foegele at 15:42 of the second.

“I was lucky enough to bury it,” Greig told TSN’s Kara Wagland after the second period. “It was nice to get a bounce there.”

Getting Jake Sanderson back will help the power play.

The Senators created chances, but they didn’t do a lot with either of their two opportunities with the man advantage in the second. They moved the puck well, but couldn’t get anything through Varlamov.

A tough giveaway by Shane Pinto resulted in the opening goal by the Isles with only 11.2 seconds left on the clock. Matias Maccelli stole the puck and then beat Ullmark high.

That gave the Isles a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.

The fans had two goal celebrations that didn’t count.

It looked like Halliday had given the Senators the lead with 8:08 left in the first when he fired a wrister by Varlamov. But the Isles challenged for offside almost immediately.

Stutzle held onto the puck at the line and, as a result, Batherson was offside.

That was the second time the Senators thought they had scored.

Foegele set off a fake celebration only 4:50 into the game. He fired a shot that beat Varlamov, and referee Kendrick Nicholson signalled a goal. The review showed it hit the crossbar.

Having taken away is tough enough. Two celebrations that didn’t count is total lunch bag letdown.

Ullmark was trying to become the first Ottawa goalie to win his first six starts since the late Ray Emery achieved the feat in 2005-06.

Ullmark had posted a 1.27 goals-against average and a .948 save percentage heading into the game. Backup Samuel Ersson struggled in the loss to the Blues, and the Senators needed to steady the ship.

Ullmark has done a good job of making the stops when the Senators make mistakes, and that’s why they’ve had a strong start to the year.

It was a little surprising to see Varlamov start for the Isles, but what a story. He was looking for his first NHL win since Nov. 14, 2024, after having two partial knee replacements and 22 months of medical rehab to get back to the league.

bgarrioch@postmedia.com