Wild Blog

Wild Blog

Want to know more about Wild Blog? Get their official bio, social pages & articles on KFAN FM 100.3!

 

Sens hope to find offense in Minnesota | KFAN 100.3 FM

Minnesota Wild v New Jersey Devils

The Ottawa Senators have had a scoring outage over the last two games, and Minnesota might not be the best place to find full power.

The Senators travel to the "State of Hockey" to face the Minnesota Wild in St. Paul on Friday, a game which will conclude the clubs' two-game series this season.

Ottawa led in the third period but dropped a 2-1 decision to the visiting Boston Bruin on Wednesday night, adding on to what has been an anemic week of scoring for the Atlantic Division team.

The Senators fell 1-0 in Columbus on Monday, losing on a deflection from the high slot that changed direction and veered to the right of goaltender Craig Anderson.

But Wednesday's loss felt worse than the shutout.

Ottawa held a 1-0 lead after Thomas Chabot scored an impressive goal off a feed from Chris Tierney. The defenseman skated in and popped a shot over Boston standout Tuukka Rask less than a minute into the third period, but that was it for the offense.

Boston's veteran leaders took over from there, as Brad Marchand and Zdeno Chara potted goals 3 1/2 minutes apart to give the streaking Bruins their fifth straight win.

"I thought we worked really hard," Ottawa coach D.J. Smith told reporters. "We made a couple of mistakes that ended up in our net. Some real good players of theirs scored.

"We just haven't found a way to score on our chances, but I don't know if we can play much better through (the first) two periods. ...They're a good hockey team for a reason."

Smith announced that Anders Nilsson, Wednesday's loser in goal, will again be between the pipes against the Wild.

The Senators also reassigned forward Max Veronneau to AHL Belleville on Thursday morning.

Offensive struggles were story of Ottawa's first game against Minnesota, as well, a 2-0 loss at home on Oct. 14.

Backup goalie Alex Stalock stopped 26 shots to record his sixth career shutout, and Victor Rask and Zach Parise netted goals as the Wild broke a season-opening four-game losing skid.

Minnesota rookie backstop Kaapo Kahkonen stole the show Tuesday night in New Jersey in the Wild's 3-2 win over the Devils.

The Finnish netminder made his NHL debut a stellar one, recording 32 saves as Minnesota extended its point streak to seven games

"Obviously it's just one game, but I feel the game was pretty simple, we did the right plays and put the puck deep and defended the middle," said Kahkonen, 23. "They got their chances from the outside, but we did a very good job, and that made my job a lot easier."

He was called up on an emergency basis from the team's AHL Iowa affiliate after No. 1 goalie Devan Dubnyk went home for personal reasons.

Kahkonen made all 10 saves in the third period to help lock down the win and move Minnesota to 4-0-3 in its last seven games.

Defenseman Ryan Suter notched a goal and an assist, pushing him to seven points (goal, six assists) in his past five games.


Sponsored Content

Sponsored Content