Senators Stumble Against Wild but Remain in Wild Card Hunt with Sanderson’s Return

The Ottawa Senators faced a disappointing setback on Saturday afternoon, falling 4-1 to the Minnesota Wild at Canadian Tire Centre. This loss marks the Senators’ fourth defeat in their last five games, leaving them with a record of 1-3-1 during this critical stretch.

Despite the loss, there is a silver lining. The teams trailing the Senators in the wild card race—Columbus, Detroit, and the Islanders—also suffered regulation defeats, allowing Ottawa to maintain its grip on the final wild-card spot with just six games remaining in the season.

Another piece of good news for the Senators was the return of defenseman Jake Sanderson, who had missed 13 games due to a shoulder injury. However, the excitement surrounding his comeback was dampened as the team seemed uninspired by his presence on the ice. Adding to the woes, defenseman Tyler Kleven is now out indefinitely after suffering a head injury from a puck in Thursday’s win over Buffalo.

In goal for Minnesota, Jesper Wallstedt showcased a stellar performance, making 33 saves, and at times, appeared to be on track for a shutout. The Senators managed to generate some chances but struggled with quality, as many of their shots came from the perimeter, lacking the necessary traffic in front of the net. Drake Batherson finally broke through with a goal late in the game, scoring while lying on the ice with under four minutes remaining. This marked the second time in three games that Batherson has scored late, previously finding the net in a 5-0 deficit against Florida. Unfortunately, he too was struck by a shot on the play and exited down the tunnel afterward.

As for the Wild, they capitalized on a bit of luck to take a 2-0 lead in the first period. Jonas Brodin’s wrist shot took an unexpected bounce off the ice and goaltender Linus Ullmark before deflecting off Nikolas Matinpalo’s skate and into the net. Minnesota’s second goal came courtesy of a costly turnover by Jordan Spence, which led to a 2-on-0 break finished off by Ryan Hartman. Hartman, who had previously faced suspension for an incident involving Tim Stutzle, added insult to injury by scoring twice to lead the Wild’s offensive efforts.

After the game, Senators head coach Travis Green addressed the loss, pushing back against a reporter’s suggestion that the team lacked urgency. “When you ask if we played with enough urgency, I think it feels like you are asking if we tried hard enough. That’s just easy to say when you lose. Our guys want to win. They want to win bad,” Green said, acknowledging that some players did not perform at their best but refraining from singling anyone out.

Despite the lackluster performance, the Senators, along with the Red Wings, Blue Jackets, and Flyers, will enter Sunday tied at 88 points, with Ottawa holding the tiebreaker due to a superior number of regulation wins. They will look to bounce back as they host the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday at 5 pm, both teams coming off a busy schedule. The Hurricanes did the Senators a favor on Saturday night, defeating the Islanders 4-3 in regulation.

Note: This recap is an independently written summary based on publicly available reporting.