The Eastern Conference playoff race continues to heat up as the Ottawa Senators visit the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday night.

Both teams are outside of the playoff picture entering Tuesday’s action, with third place in the Atlantic Division and both wild-card positions in reach.

The Senators sit in fifth place in the Atlantic with a 37-24-9 record and are two points behind the New York Islanders for the second wild-card spot in the East and three points behind the Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins for third in the Atlantic.

Ottawa’s push for the playoffs has been impressive. They were 10 points out on Jan. 30 but have gone 14-3-2 in their past 19 games.

They are currently on a three-game winning streak after defeating the New York Rangers 2-1 on Monday night and can move into a playoff position for the first time since Dec. 3 with a win over the Red Wings and some help from the Chicago Blackhawks against the Islanders.

“I think we’re clicking as one team, and you can really see that with the past five, 10 games that we’ve been playing,” Senators defenceman Jordan Spence told reporters after the game. “We’re playing really well, especially in the defensive zone, but even in the offensive zone as well. We’re creating a lot of chances and we’re cycling down low.

“We have 12 more games left. We’re on a playoff push, so hopefully we can keep doing what we’re doing.”

Ottawa’s defence was the key difference in their victory over the Rangers on Monday by only allowing 10 shots on goal. The Senators were able to accomplish this despite losing defencemen Thomas Chabot and Lassi Thompson early due to injuries.

Chabot left the game at the end of the first period after taking a crosscheck to the arm from Rangers captain J.T. Miller in the dying seconds of the frame. Thompson exited early in the second period, limping off the ice with a lower-body injury.

“Just a great team effort tonight,” head coach Travis Green said after the game. “Obviously, with two defencemen going down, guys have to step up, play a lot more minutes than they’re used to. The forwards were helping them out. It was just a real good team win.”

Spence, Tyler Kleven, and Artem Zub picked up the load, with Spence recording a career-high 26:44 of ice time. Kleven finished at 24:30 while Zub was on the ice for 23:44.

Green told reporters after the game that Chabot and Thompson will be out of the lineup for “a while” and the team recalled highly regarded rookie blueliners Carter Yakemchuk and Jorian Donovan from the AHL’s Belleville Senators on Tuesday, according to Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch.

Yakemchuk, 20, was drafted seventh overall by the Senators in the 2024 draft and is in the midst of his first professional hockey season, recording 10 goals and 36 points in 50 games in the AHL.

Donovan, 21, was drafted 136th overall by the Senators in 2022 and has four goals and 21 points in 58 AHL games this season.

Both players are expected to make their NHL debuts against the Red Wings. If Donovan plays, he and his father Shean will be the first father-son combo to both play for the Senators organization after Shean played three seasons for the team from 2007 to 2010.

Linus Ullmark is expected to start in net on Tuesday after James Reimer made nine saves for the victory over the Rangers.

Ullmark, 32, has won five of his last seven starts and has a 22-10-7 record with an .885 save percentage and 2.77 goals-against average this season.

The Red Wings sit one point ahead of the Senators in the Atlantic with a 38-24-8 record and are one point behind the Islanders in the wild-card race and two points behind the Canadiens and Bruins for the third spot in the Atlantic.

They are coming off a 4-2 loss to the Bruins on Saturday and have gone 5-5-2 since the NHL resumed games after the Olympics.

Red Wings forward Alex DeBrincat has been red-hot coming into their game with the Senators, recording points in 10 of his past 11 games with five goals and 16 points during that span.

Red Wings captain Dylan Larkin is a game-time decision on Tuesday after missed the past seven games with a lower-body injury.

John Gibson is expected to get the start in net against the Senators. The 6-foot-3 netminder is in the midst of his best season since the 2018-19 campaign after he was dealt from the Anaheim Ducks to the Red Wings in the off-season.

He has a 26-16-3 record with a .907 save percentage and 2.54 GAA in his first season in Detroit.

Tuesday’s game will be the fourth and final game of the season series between the two clubs with Ottawa looking to avoid the sweep.

Detroit also has 12 games remaining in the regular season with five games against teams currently in the playoff picture.