Game 15 preview: Minnesota Wild @ Ottawa Senators

Coming off a dramatic 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings, the Ottawa Senators will look to equal a season best with their third straight win when they host the Minnesota Wild at 5:00 p.m. today. After a poor first period, the Senators dominated a Kings team playing on back-to-back nights and were rewarded with two late goals.

The Senators are now 9-5-0, a long way behind the first place Canadiens but still in second place in the Atlantic Division. The Wild lost 3-2 in Philadelphia last night and tonight will be the last game of a four-game road trip for Minnesota.

Ottawa is expected to make no changes to the lineup with Craig Anderson getting the start again. Here is the lineup.

Smith - Pageau - Stone
Hoffman - Brassard - Ryan
Dzingel - Turris - Pyatt
Puempel - Kelly - Neil

Methot - Karlsson
Phaneuf - Ceci
Borowiecki - Claesson

Anderson (starter)
Condon

Some notes for tonight:

• Ottawa's last four wins have been by one goal. The Senators scored two regulation goals on the opposition goaltender for the first time since 28 October.
• Erik Karlsson had his first multi-point game since 18 October. He now has 12 points in 14 games. Despite his recent offensive struggles, he is second among defencemen in points, two points behind Brent Burns.
• Ryan Dzingel is the only Senators forward currently on pace to get 50 or more points. He is on pace for 53.
• Aside from his empty net goal against Edmonton, Bobby Ryan has no goals and two assists in the last 10 games.
• The Senators are ranked seventh in the NHL for fewest goals allowed per game.
• Guy Boucher claims that the Senators have just started working on the power play in practice. Regardless of how they have got there, a 9-5-0 record gives Ottawa some room for error to get things going as far as making the playoffs go.
• The Senators power play did look pretty good according to Boucher (and me) against Los Angeles. Ottawa can't expect to keep getting this kind of goaltending, but they can also expect to start scoring more.
• Eric Staal is now on the Wild. What a time to be alive! He leads the Wild with 12 points in 13 games.
• The Wild are seventh in goals scored per game and second in goals allowed per game but are only 7-5-1. They are 2-4-0 in one-goal games while Ottawa leads the NHL with a 6-1-0 record in one goal games./

Here are some stats for the two teams tonight. All stats are from NHL.com except Corsi and Fenwick are from www.puckon.net.