Ottawa Senators Edge Dallas Stars 3-2

After an inspiring 5-0 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Saturday, the Ottawa Senators returned home on Sunday night to face a much stiffer test in the shape of the Dallas Stars. Fans will remember the Sens' struggles against this same Dallas squad less than two weeks ago. With Linus Ullmark still out, and Anton Forsberg struggling, Leevi Meriläinen was given the start on back-to-back nights.

If you were a bit pessimistic about the team's chances, the start of the game couldn't have inspired much confidence: the Stars opened the scoring less than five minutes into the opening frame after Evgenii Dadonov and Roope Hintz combined on a pretty passing play to set up Jason Robertson for his 11th of the season. The Nikolas Mantipalo and Tyler Kleven pairing (along with Zack Ostapchuk) were victimized on the goal – likely not a group that Travis Green wanted out against the Stars' top trio.

Fortunately Ottawa was able to stabilize their defensive play for the rest of the period but without generating too much offense of their own. Josh Norris and Claude Giroux had contested attempts from the slot, but most of Sens' opportunities ended with blocked or missed shots. With only five total shots on net, you'd have been forgiven for feeling like the first twenty minutes were a case of deja-vu.

NHL hockey is a funny thing, though, because sometimes the dynamic of a game can change entirely after the intermission. The second period of tonight's game was one of the best the Sens have played all year – especially considering the competition.

Josh Norris got things going early when he completed a pretty passing play by batting a puck out of the air and past Casey DeSmith:

If you believe in the importance of momentum, you can consider what came after this further proof of the concept. Less than a minute later, Jake Sanderson used his speed to jump into the play and create a chance in the slot that Tim Stützle did not miss:

With everything going the Sens' way, the Stars would go on the power play after a mildly dubioux tripping call against Josh Norris. It wouldn't take long for Dallas to capitalize on their opportunity and it looked like all the Sens' good work was for naught...

But!

Ottawa challenged for offside on the zone entry and the goal was called back. In the old days you might have called that a TSN Turning Point. I can't say that I love that goals get called back like this but this time it helped the Sens so I'll take it.

Ottawa killed off the rest of man advantage and went back to dominating the game. Stutzle created a Grade A opportunity for Giroux but DeSmith made a sliding pad save. It was a missed chance, sure, but it also felt representative of how well the Sens were controlling play by that point.

Ottawa tempted the fates a bit when Kleven took a silly cross-checking penalty with about 2 and a half mins left but the Sens' Penalty Kill continued its run of stellar play and the good guys entered the third period with a 2-1 lead.

Less than 30 seconds into the final frame, the Sens get the badly needed 3-1 goal thanks to Matthew Highmore.

A stat you may have heard during tonight's broadcast is that the Sens were 16-1-1 when leading after two periods. Following the 3-1 goal, Ottawa did a great job of holding the Stars in check.

In fact, this game would have been an almost no-stress breeze if Artem Zub hadn't flipped the puck out of play with just over two minutes left, sending the Stars to the powerplay. Ottawa had a couple of cracks at the empty net and, when they missed, Dadonov made 'em pay to narrow the lead to 3-2 with just less than a minute to go. Was I feeling tense at that moment in time? Yes.

Thankfully the Stars couldn't muster another push and the Sens hung on for the 3-2 win. Considering the opposition and the circumstances, this is one Ottawa should be proud of. A lot of real positives and four out of a possible four points on a back-to-back. The second half of the season is off to a roaring start.

Game Notes:

-Sanderson was absolutely flying tonight. Besides creating the second goal, he was using his skating to jump into the offense regularly and just generally dominated the game whenever he was on the ice. Stellar Sandy performance top to bottom.

-With two consecutive strong performances, and Forsberg's well-documented struggles, Meriläinen has forced his way into a major role in Ullmark's absence. I'm not sure that they can (or should) keep running him out there in back-to-backs but he's gotta be the starter on Tuesday at the very least.

-Tough night for the Kleven-Mantipalo pairing beyond just the goal as both struggled at times to connect passes and defend the cycle. The top two pairs were absolutely cooking so it wasn't an issue tonight but the duo is sporting a scary 38.57 xGF% for their five games together. There have been some good moments but Ottawa is going to need a bit more from them going forward.

Game Flow and Heat Map: