Meriläinen Shines Against Minnesota in 3-1 Victory

This weekend was one of the most difficult of the season for the Ottawa Senators. They had back-to-back road games against two of the top teams in the league, the Winnipeg Jets and the Minnesota Wild. In addition, they were without both Linus Ullmark and Anton Forsberg, so they had to resort to Mads Søgaard and Leevi Meriläinen starting one game each. Managing any result at all this weekend would be a victory.

The good news is they ended it off on a strong note.

The first period of tonight‘s affair was a bit slow and uneventful but in a good way if you’re a Sens fan. Søgaard appeared very uncomfortable last night even when he was stopping the puck, whereas Meriläinen looked like he belonged from the get-go. Things were pretty even in terms of shots and chances after the first period, and the only difference between the two squads was a Declan Chisholm tally with 2:41 left. The puck came out to a wide-open Chisholm at the point and Meriläinen got caught looking the wrong way while the shot was coming in. For their part, Ottawa was kept to the outside much of the period and thus were down 1-0.

The Senators weren't going to sit quietly though, and they began the second period on fire, outshooting the Wild 10-0 almost eight minutes in. Within those 10 shots, Ottawa was able to tie the game thanks to Ridly Greig. Ottawa kept possession in the offensive zone for a while and Minnesota was exhausted. Travis Hamonic took a half-slapshot from the point (what else is new?), and it's unclear if he meant to shoot it wide on purpose or not. The puck slowly bounced to the other side of the net, and Greig was there just in time to bring it out front and lift it past Filip Gustavsson:

Nikolas Matinpalo subsequently took an undisciplined slashing penalty, and the Wild had some incredibly close chances after manufacturing exactly nothing up until that point in the frame. They also hit the post/crossbar three times in the period, but were unable to re-take the lead in the second period. Ottawa could have also taken the lead in the middle frame as they dominated at even strength, but it was tied at one heading into the third period, just like last night.

The third period was tension-filled. Both teams were putting in a full effort, and you knew it was going to come down to the dying seconds or maybe that it was going to overtime. Then Ottawa drew back-to-back penalties in the final 11 minutes. Just 13 seconds after the Wild did very well to kill the first penalty to Zach Bogosian, Jared Spurgeon took a very obvious holding call on Drake Batherson, giving Ottawa their second excellent opportunity to take the lead.

This time, they didn't waste their chance. Drake Batherson passed it up to Jake Sanderson at the top of the formation, and, instead of shooting it, Sanderson faked and passed it perfectly to Norris. It was just strong enough for Norris to one-time it, and he scored his 14th of the season, a classic Norris powerplay goal:

Minnesota wasn't going to give up there and they made it nerve-wracking for Ottawa over the next several minutes. With Gustavsson pulled in the final two minutes, the Senators had a few chances to get it out but failed. It felt inevitable that the Wild were going to capitalize on that, but thankfully Claude Giroux was able to block a shot and barely get enough on it to score all the way from the defensive zone. That made it 3-1 with 44 seconds to go, putting the game out of reach. Ottawa moved back into a playoff spot with a 19-15-2 record.

Notable Performances:

• Meriläinen was obviously the first star of the game as he stopped 30/31 shots. Minnesota did hit many posts/crossbars, but you can't really put that against him—they weren't going in. He looked so composed and I truly felt like they had a chance to win the whole night. He should have the chance to be the main starter until Ullmark comes back.
• It's very aesthetically pleasing seeing Norris score from his go-to spot on the powerplay like that. I still think he's being underutilized on the powerplay as they haven't been giving him many one-timer opportunities.
• Matinpalo took an undisciplined penalty, which doesn't look good for his first time in the lineup this season. However, he didn't stick out in a bad way, and he had a whopping 19 CF and 3 CF while being paired with Tyler Kleven. It was a tiny 10:24 sample, but it'd be nice if he's someone they can play more often too.
• Greig has scored in back-to-back games, and I keep talking about how important it is that he (and a few others) get going so that they don't have to always rely on their stars. More of that, please.

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