Senators end 2-game skid by knocking off Wild

Josh Norris scored the go-ahead goal with 7:18 remaining in the third period, and the Ottawa Senators held on for a 3-1 win over the Minnesota Wild on Sunday night in Saint Paul, Minn.

Ridly Greig and Claude Giroux also scored for Ottawa, which snapped a two-game skid. The Senators improved to 7-2-0 in their past nine contests.

Frederick Gaudreau scored the lone goal for Minnesota. The Wild's two-game winning streak came to an end.

Senators goaltender Leevi Merilainen stopped 30 of 31 shots to pick up his second career win in his fifth game. The save total marked the second-most in the brief career of the 22-year-old from Finland.

Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson turned aside 34 of 36 shots but took the hard-luck loss. He fell to 16-6-3 on the season.

The Wild opened the scoring with 2:41 remaining in the first period.

Declan Chisholm waited near the top of the left circle after Minnesota won a faceoff in the offensive zone. Marcus Foligno flipped a backhanded pass to Chisholm, and he blasted a wrist shot that Gaudreau deflected for his first goal since Dec. 12.

Ottawa pulled even at 1-1 with 18:13 to go in the second period.

Travis Hamonic fired a long slap shot from near the blue line that Brady Tkachuk tried to redirect. The attempt went wide of the net and bounced off the end boards, but Greig tracked the ricochet and punched the puck in the goal.

Norris provided the tiebreaking goal on a one-timer from the right circle. He took a pass from Jake Sanderson and blasted it past Gustavsson for his second goal in the past four games.

Giroux added an empty-net score in the final minute.

The Senators finished 1-for-2 on the power play, while Minnesota went 0-for-2.

--Field Level Media