Devils slump to ninth straight loss

Newark, New Jersey: Craig Anderson made 33 saves in his third shutout of the season as the Ottawa Senators sent the sliding New Jersey Devils to their ninth straight loss with a 2-0 victory on Friday.

Jean-Gabriel Pageau and Milan Michalek scored second-period goals for the Senators, who won for the second straight night to boost their play-off chances.

Ottawa, in sixth place in the NHL’s Eastern Conference, leads ninth-place Winnipeg by four points. New Jersey is 10th, eight points behind Ottawa and four behind the New York Rangers and the post-season cut-off with seven games to play.

The defending Eastern Conference champion Devils dropped to 0-5-4 without injured star forward Ilya Kovalchuk. The slide is one game shy of the franchise mark, set in the 1983-84 season.

Despite outshooting the Senators 23-9 in the opening 40 minutes and getting an early two-man advantage, the Devils trailed 2-0 heading into the third period.

Brandon Sa’ad scored in the fifth round of the shootout after Jonathan Toews tied the game late in regulation as Chicago clinched the NHL Central Division title with a victory over Detroit.

With St. Louis losing to Columbus earlier on Friday, the Blackhawks wrapped up the Central race for the first time since 2010 when they won the Stanley Cup. Chicago also increased its lead over Anaheim for the top seed in the Western Conference playoffs to seven points.

The shootout was level at 1-1 when Sa’ad beat Jimmy Howard with a backhand shot. Corey Crawford then stopped Johan Franzen, sealing the win and giving the Blackhawks a four-game season sweep over Detroit.

Two quick goals by Franzen and Cory Emmerton late in the second period gave Detroit a 2-1 lead, but the Blackhawks answered down the stretch.