Lars Eller broke a tie early in the third period to propel the Ottawa Senators to a 4-1 win against the visiting Buffalo Sabres on Thursday.
Dylan Cozens, Ridly Greig and Shane Pinto also scored for the Senators (39-26-10, 88 points), who kept their playoff hopes alive. Linus Ullmark made 21 saves.
Mattias Samuelsson scored and Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen made 20 saves for the Sabres (46-22-8, 100 points), who will have to wait to clinch their first playoff berth since 2011.
Eller put Ottawa ahead at 5:55 of the third when he deflected Artem Zub’s point shot past Luukkonen.
Greig scored an empty-net goal at 17:42 to make it 3-1, and Pinto added another at 18:42 for the 4-1 final.
Samuelsson gave Buffalo a 1-0 lead at 8:49 of the second period. After Tage Thompson won the faceoff, Peyton Krebs quickly corralled the loose puck and pushed it to Bowen Byram at the left point. Byram then walked the blue line before dishing it to Samuelsson at the opposite point, and Samuelsson took it above the left circle for a wrist shot through traffic that beat Ullmark to the far side.
Cozens tied it 1-1 at 15:18. Greig intercepted Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin’s clearing attempt at the blue line and sent it over to Brady Tkachuk to his right. Tkachuk then fired a shot toward the net that Cozens redirected over Luukkonen’s blocker.
Ullmark kept the game tied late in the final seconds of the middle frame, getting in front of a quick shot by Byram from the slot.
It was a relatively quiet first period between the Atlantic Division foes as Buffalo edged Ottawa 6-4 in shots on goal, while the two teams were even in shot attempts, with 16 apiece, in the opening frame.
The Sabres had their opportunity in the latter half. A power play midway through the period led to a dominant shift by the visitors after it expired, with Buffalo maintaining continuous possession in the offensive zone and drawing another man advantage as it hemmed Ottawa in the zone.
Senators defenseman Tyler Kleven left the game at 6:23 of the first period and did not return after a shot from Byram hit him high.
