Ottawa Senators' Brady Tkachuk (7) tries to the play the puck off his skate in front of Carolina Hurricanes' goaltender Frederik Andersen (31) during second period NHL hockey action in Ottawa, on Sunday, April 5, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

By The Canadian Press

Tkachuk scores twice, Senators help playoff chances by beating Hurricanes 6-3

Apr 5, 2026 | 5:55 PM

OTTAWA — Captain Brady Tkachuk had Ottawa fans chanting “we want playoffs” after scoring his second goal of the game en route to a Senators’ 6-3 win over the Eastern Conference-leading Carolina Hurricanes Sunday.

The victory lifts the Senators (40-27-10) into the final wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference with five games left to play.

A win would have allowed Carolina (49-22-6) to clinch the Metropolitan Division.

Both teams were playing the back half of back-to-back games but the Senators seemed to find another gear in the third period.

Ottawa took over in the third scoring twice in a span of 3:42 to grab a 5-2 lead.

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Shane Pinto made it 4-2 scoring on the power play beating Frederik Andersen short side.

Ridly Greig then won a foot race to the net and while Andersen made the initial save he left the side of the net wide open for Tkachuk to bury his second of the game. Andersen finished the game with 25 saves on 30 shots.

Carolina’s Taylor Hall wristed a shot past Linus Ullmark, who made 25 saves, with 2:30 remaining to make it 5-3, but Claude Giroux added an empty-net goal to extend Ottawa’s lead.

Ottawa took the lead midway through the second when Tkachuk tipped an Artem Zub point shot.

A high energy first period saw the teams each score twice.

Carolina opened the scoring with a power-play goal with Nikolaj Ehlers making a no-look back pass to Logan Stankoven.

Ottawa tied it less than two minutes later with a power-play goal of its own when Dylan Cozens jumped on a rebound out front and backhanded a puck past Andersen.

Tim Stutzle brought the crowd to their feet when he intercepted Eric Robinson’s pass and cut through two Carolina defencemen before scoring on his backhand.

The Hurricanes tied the game with 19.5 seconds remaining in the period when Andrei Svechnikov was able to poke a loose puck across the goal line.

TAKEAWAYS

Senators: The Senators were much more aggressive in front of the net and generated a number of scoring chances off it.

Hurricanes: Carolina started strong but looked like a team that had played the night before and travelled as the game went on.

KEY STAT

Jake Sanderson played his 300th NHL career game.

UP NEXT

Hurricanes: Host the Boston Bruins on Tuesday.

Senators: Host the Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 5, 2026.

Lisa Wallace, The Canadian Press