Staal’s 2 goals help Wild rally past Senators
Published 10:21 pm Tuesday, December 19, 2017
OTTAWA, Ontario — Eric Staal scored twice, Nate Prosser had a goal and an assist and the Minnesota Wild rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat the Ottawa Senators 6-4 on Tuesday night.
Ottawa led 3-1 in the second period behind two goals from Erik Karlsson and another from Jean-Gabriel Pageau. Chris Stewart and Mikko Koivu scored to tie it before the second intermission, and then Prosser, Jonas Brodin and Staal scored for Minnesota in the final period.
The Wild ended a two-game skid. Alex Stalock had 28 saves, and Ryan Suter and Charlie Coyle each added two assists.
Craig Anderson had 34 saves for the Senators, and Derick Brassard also scored.
Prosser’s first goal of the season at 1:48 of the third proved the winner. Brodin scored on his own rebound five minutes into the third for some insurance, and Staal scored on the power play at 16:39 for a 6-3 lead before Brassard scored on the power play for the Senators at 18:34.
Karlsson scored his second goal of the game at 1:08 of the second on the power play, beating Stalock with a shot from the point. Pageau gave the Senators a 3-1 at 5:44 following a no-look pass from behind the net by Tom Pyatt.
After Stewart got the Wild to within a goal just past the halfway point of the period, Stalock kept it a one-goal game when he stopped Nate Thompson on a short-handed breakaway and then Pyatt on the rebound.
Koivu tied it at 19:05 when he tipped a point shot from Suter past Anderson just as a penalty to Senators defenseman Cody Ceci expired.
The teams each scored once in the opening period with Karlsson sending a point shot through Stalock who had two players screening him just 2:08 into the game. The Wild got that one back at 11:11 when Suter took a shot that was going wide before hitting Staal in the midsection and redirecting through Anderson’s legs.
Notes
Gabriel Dumont and Ben Harpur were scratches for Ottawa while Gustav Olofsson, Zack Mitchell and Devan Dubnyk were scratches for the Wild. Senators F Alex Burrows is one assist shy of 200 for his career. The Wild had killed 19 straight penalties before Karlsson scored on the Senators’ first power-play attempt.
Up next
Minnesota: Plays the third of four straight on the road Friday night at Florida.
Ottawa: Plays its next three games on the road, including Thursday night at Tampa Bay.