OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Brady Tkachuk scored twice and the Ottawa Senators beat the Carolina Hurricanes 6-3 on Sunday night to move into the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Ottawa moved a point ahead of the New York Islanders for the last playoff spot with five games left. The Senators are five points behind Boston for the first wild card.
Carolina leads the East, two points ahead of Tampa Bay. The Hurricanes missed a chance to clinch the Metropolitan Division.
Both teams were playing the second half of back-to-back games, with Ottawa scoring twice in a 3:42 span in the third to take a 5-2 lead.
Shane Pinto made it 4-2 on a power play, beating Frederik Andersen to the short side. Ridly Greig then won a race to the net and, while Andersen made the initial save, the side was wide open for Tkachuk to bury his second of the game.
Carolina’s Taylor Hall wristed a shot past Linus Ullmark with 2:30 remaining to make it 5-3, but Claude Giroux added an empty-netter for Ottawa.
Dylan Cozens and Tim Stutzle also scored for Ottawa, and Ullmark stopped 25 shots. Defenseman Jake Sanderson played his 300th NHL game. He had an assist.
Logan Stankoven and Andrei Svechnikov also scored for Carolina, and Andersen made 25 saves.