Anton Forsberg made 18 saves and the host Ottawa Senators won their fourth game in a row, beating the Chicago Blackhawks 2-0 on Thursday night.
Forsberg, who surrendered a combined 11 goals in his previous two starts, recorded his second shutout of the season and fifth of his nine-year NHL career, all coming in the past three seasons.
Claude Giroux and Parker Kelly scored first-period goals for the Senators (32-36-4, 68 points), who matched their season high for consecutive victories while winning four straight in regulation for the first time this season.
Petr Mrazek made 32 saves for the Blackhawks (21-47-5, 47 points), who won their previous two games. Chicago still has not recorded a three-game winning steak this season.
Ottawa’s Artem Zub was penalized for tripping nine seconds into the game, but it was the Senators who scored short-handed 27 seconds later for a 1-0 lead.
Chicago turned the puck over at the Ottawa blue line, leading to a three-on-two break for the Senators. Giroux passed to Jacob Bernard-Docker on the right wing, and he gave it back to Giroux, who had room to skate into the high slot and score with a wrist shot.
Ottawa took advantage of another turnover to make it 2-0 at 6:08.
Blackhawks rookie center Connor Bedard was under pressure when he tried to bank the puck off the side boards and out of his zone. Kelly intercepted the puck, however, and skated to just above the left circle before taking a wrist shot that sailed through traffic, off Mrazek’s glove and into the net.
The Senators outshot Chicago 16-7 in the opening period.
The Blackhawks were shut out for the 12th time this season. The last NHL team to be shut out 12 times in a season was the 2017-18 Montreal Canadiens.
Kelly briefly left the game after getting hit in the face with a deflected puck midway through the second period.
The Senators played without defenseman Thomas Chabot, who sustained a lower-body injury in Ottawa’s 6-2 road win over the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night.
Tyler Kleven was recalled from Belleville of the AHL and filled Chabot’s spot in the lineup, playing 14:07.
–Field Level Media