OTTAWA — Jared Spurgeon scored twice as the Minnesota Wild defeated the Ottawa Senators 4-3 on Saturday afternoon.
Jordan Greenway and Zach Parise also scored for the Wild (20-17-3), who played their second of a four-game road trip. Devan Dubnyk stopped 24 shots.
Matt Duchene, Ryan Dzingel and Mark Stone replied for the Senators (15-22-5), who have now lost seven straight (0-6-1).
Anders Nilsson made 22 saves in Ottawa debut after being acquired Wednesday from the Vancouver Canucks.
The Wild took a 4-2 lead early in the third as Parise jumped on a rebound, but Ottawa made it a one-goal game on Stone’s 20th of the season as he tipped a Cody Ceci shot.
Minnesota Wild’s Zack Parise celebrates his goal with teammate Charlie Coyle as Ottawa Senators goaltender Anders Nilsson and Maxime Lajoie watch (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand)
Ottawa had a two-man advantage for the last 26 seconds of the game, but were unable to capitalize.
Trailing 1-0 Spurgeon tied the game just 41 seconds into the second for the Wild as he took a drop pass from Luke Kunin and went on to beat Nilsson off his backhand.
Ottawa regained the lead at the eight-minute mark on Dzingel’s 16th, but the Wild tied it back up minutes later as Greenway was left all alone in front and jammed home a puck under Nilsson.
Minnesota took the lead late in the period as Spurgeon scored his second from a sharp angle.
The Senators got off to a much better start than their last few games and were outshooting the Wild 12-2 midway through the first and if not for Dubnyk could have had a few early goals.
Ottawa finally beat Dubnyk in the final minute of the period. Duchene stepped out of the penalty box, took a pass from Zack Smith and muscled his way through the Wild defence before getting around Dubnyk for an empty net.
Notes: Nick Paul was a healthy scratch for the Senators. Christian Jaros returned to the lineup after missing three games with a broken finger. Rudolfs Balcers, acquired as part of the Erik Karlsson trade, made his NHL debut Saturday afternoon. Minnesota’s J.T Brown and Nate Prosser were healthy scratches.
Lisa Wallace, The Canadian Press
