Goalie Samuel Ersson earns first win for Senators as his team serves up a Halloween treat

A fine effort from the goal out produced a 5-1 triumph against the host San Jose Sharks, their ninth victory of the month to match a franchise record.

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The Ottawa Senators carved up the San Jose Sharks on Halloween.

The Senators halted their two-game winless skid in style, serving up more treats than tricks in a 5-1 victory over the Sharks on Saturday at the SAP Center.

Dylan Cozens, Shane Pinto, Jake Sanderson and Tim Stutzle led the attack with two-point efforts, while Drake Batherson and Ridly Greig also chipped in with goals. Pinto put the game away by scoring into an empty net.

“That was a great game by us today,” Cozens told the National Hockey League club’s website. “We played a great full 60 (minutes). We were ready to go right from puck drop. We got to the game early and just continued throughout.”

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This was the Senators’ best effort of the season. Stutzle had seven shots on net, and Sanderson was plus-4.

Goaltender Samuel Ersson made 21 saves to record his first win since being acquired by the Senators in the off-season. This was his fifth start for the club.

The Senators closed out October with a 9-5-1 record. The nine wins matched a franchise record for victories in October set at the start of the 2006-07 campaign.

After coming back from a 5-1 deficit before losing 6-5 in overtime to the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday, the Senators bounced back with one of their best efforts of the season.

The power play remained an area of concern, though. The Senators had a 5-on-3 advantage for a full two minutes in the third period, but managed only three shots and couldn’t extend the lead. That has to change.

Ersson made his first start since facing the Sharks nine days ago in Ottawa. He came into this contest with an 0-3-1 record in his six appearances along with a whopping 4.47 goals-against average and an .849 save percentage.

However, he had been 4-2-0 lifetime against the Sharks along with a 2.48 goals-against average and .905 save percentage.

Ersson wasn’t tested a lot in this one, but he made the necessary stops, and that was all the Senators needed from their backup netminder. He has taken a lot of heat for his start to the season, so this win will be good for his confidence.

The Senators played well in front of him, too, and outshot the Sharks 35-22.

“Strong game,” head coach Travis Green said. “From the drop of the puck until the end, I thought we were on top of our game. They’ve got a good offensive team and we did a really good job.”

The Senators found their scoring touch in the nick of time. Green was forced to shuffle the deck because of injuries up front.

Cozens was moved to the right side of Fabian Zetterlund and Stutzle. Batherson skated on a new second line with centre Shane Pinto and Belleville’s Philip Tomasino.

Greig played in the middle between Michael Amadio and Claude Giroux.

“I liked all our lines tonight,” Green said. “I thought all our lines were rolling tonight. We talked to our group about being an every shift team, and I thought to a man we were that tonight.”

The move to wing didn’t faze Cozens because it’s not that big a change as some might have you believe.

“Even when I’m playing centre, I end up on the wing a good amount of times, or, when I’m on the wing, I end up playing centre,” Cozens said. “It’s not a whole lot different. I’m able to use my speed on the wing to beat guys wide. It was fun.”

The Senators created a ton of chances and scored three times in the second period to take a 4-1 lead. San Jose netminder Alex Nedeljkovic gave up four goals on 20 shots through 40 minutes, but it could have been worse.

TSN’s Gord Miller said Sportlogiq had the high-danger chances at 17-3 for the Senators through two periods.

Nedeljkovic had no chance on Greig’s second goal of the season and first in seven games at 12:17 of the second period. The Ottawa forward took a pass on a shorthanded breakaway, held onto the puck and beat the goalie with a backhander.

“We just have confidence in our kill and staying aggressive,” Greig said. “(Pinto) told me I’d have a shorty before the game, so he must have called it.”

That was the club’s second goal in a span of 83 seconds.

Stutzle had given the Senators a 3-1 lead with his ninth of the season at 10:54 of the second, completing a perfect three-way passing play and beating Nedeljkovic.

That came only moments after Tyler Kleven absolutely hammered San Jose’s Michael Misa into the boards with a check.

Batherson extended his point-scoring streak to seven games after he beat Nedeljkovic for a 2-1 lead at 5:04 of the second. Tomasino showed good poise, setting up Batherson with a perfect pass.

Tomasino, 25, has played 219 games in his NHL career, and he didn’t look out of place in his debut with Ottawa.

“I just try to do a little bit of everything,” Tomasino said. “I feel like we meshed together pretty well.”

The Senators made a good push in the opening period, but the two clubs were tied 1-1 after 20 minutes.

Misa tied it up 1-1 on the ninth shot by the Sharks. He picked up a huge rebound off Ersson and fired it into a yawning cage at 16:06.

Cozens scored his fourth goal in the past four games to open the scoring after starting the year with only one goal in his first 13 games. He took a pass from Stutzle and fired the puck past Nedeljkovic at 13:25.

The Senators didn’t allow their first shot on Ersson until eight minutes into the first period.

The Sharks scored a 6-2 victory over the Senators on Oct. 22.

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