Ryan Hartman scored twice for the Minnesota Wild in a 4-1 win against the visiting Ottawa Senators on Saturday afternoon in Saint Paul, Minn.
Jonas Brodin and Jake Middleton also scored, Mats Zuccarello had two assists and Jesper Wallstedt made 33 saves for the Wild (43-21-12, 98 points), who have won two straight for the first time in a month. Minnesota clinched a playoff spot on Thursday.
Drake Batherson scored a late goal and Linus Ullmark made 19 saves for the Senators (39-27-10, 88 points), who entered the day in a four-way points tie for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.
Brodin was credited with the goal that gave the Wild a 1-0 lead at 9:45 of the first period.
Brodin took a shot from above the left faceoff circle off a rush. Ullmark made a pad save, but the rebound went off the skate of Ottawa defenseman Nikolas Matinpalo and into his own net.
The Wild extended their lead to 2-0 at 15:35 of the first after forcing a turnover by Senators defenseman Jordan Spence at his own blue line. That sprung a 2-on-1 rush and Hartman scored off the feed from Zuccarello.
The Senators outshot the Wild 14-8 in the first period, but still trailed by two entering the second.
Zuccarello set up the third goal as well, passing the puck from out of the corner to Hartman in the middle. He dragged the puck across the slot before shooting it past Ullmark from the left hash marks to make it 3-0 at 15:31 of the second.
It was Hartman’s sixth goal in the past four games.
Middleton made it 4-0 with a wrist shot from the left circle at 12:46 of the third.
Batherson prevented Wallstedt from notching his fifth shutout of the season when he batted in a rebound after falling to the ice in front of the crease to cut it to 4-1 at 16:43.
Batherson went to the locker room in discomfort after scoring the goal.
Ottawa defenseman Jake Sanderson returned after missing the previous 13 games with an upper-body injury and had three giveaways in a team-high 24:55.
–Field Level Media
