Postgame Hat Trick: Senators 4, Wild 3

Wild.com's Dan Myers gives three takeaways from the Wild's 4-3 loss against the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata, Ontario on Tuesday night:

1. Two more for 22
On 2/22/22, it was fitting that the Wild's No. 22 would play a strong game and score a goal. In fact, it was his second-period tally that got the Wild kickstarted after a sluggish first frame that saw Minnesota surrender the initial two goals of the contest.
Fiala's goal 6 1/2 minutes into the second was a far-side snipe inside the right post and came moments after Fiala exited the Wild's bench on a line change.

Fiala played a critical role in the Wild's second goal too. Moments before Jared Spurgeon's tying salvo, Fiala hustled on the backcheck to help break up a Senators odd-man rush into the Wild zone.
The puck came around to Ryan Hartman, who found Spurgeon in the slot with numbers and the Wild captain rifled a shot under the crossbar to make it a 2-2 game.
The goal was Fiala's 17th of the season and 13th in his past 19 games to go with 11 assists during that same stretch.
Fiala's continued offensive surge just wasn't enough on this night as Minnesota limped out of the gates and fell behind 2-0 after one before gaining control for much of the rest of the contest.

"At 3-3, I thought we were going to win the game for sure. I thought we had it under control," Fiala said. "It's not good enough from our end. Just from the start, we're not satisfied with ourselves."
Wild coach Dean Evason was quick to tip his cap to the Sens for the way they came out of the gates strong, putting pressure on the Wild right from the hop.
"Full credit to Ottawa. They played hard and right and heavy and smart and aggressive, real aggressive. They took the game away from us early," Evason said. "We didn't catch it until the second period, and obviously we played well for two periods. But I don't care who you're playing in this league. This league is too good to spot teams continually, and that team just continued to play the same way.
"We started wrong. They started right."
2. Offense from defense
Two of the Wild's three goals on this night would come from its backend, with Spurgeon tying the game at 2-2 in the second, before Jon Merrill visited Snipe City to knot it a second time at 3-3.

Merrill was as surprised as anyone that he had as much time and space at the left point as he did, so instead of firing a low percentage shot with no traffic in front, he bolted towards the cage and snapped a shot under the crossbar from the left circle for his fourth of the season.
"I just closed my eyes and ripped it," Merrill said.
The four goals are already a career high for Merrill, who tallied three goals in 2018-19 when he played for the Vegas Golden Knights.
After Merrill tied the game, it sure seemed like the Wild would put its foot on the gas and seize control, it just couldn't find a way to a lead.

"I think we were a little frustrated with how we started the game and it it led to us chasing the game," Merrill said. "It's a tough league, and anyone can beat anyone on any night. They came out outworking us and that's just not acceptable."
Senators defenseman Thomas Chabot scored the winning goal with 5:45 left in regulation, ripping a shot from inside the blueline that rode up the stick of a Wild defenseman and under the crossbar.

"I think we were playing well in the second and third and we got to our game," Merrill said. "But ... you've got to play a full 60 minutes to win in this league, and it was almost like the hockey gods or someone was on the other side tonight and a couple bounces went their way.
"And that's just the way it goes when you're not playing a full, complete game."
3. Missing Mats
Minnesota was without a big piece of its offense on Tuesday when Mats Zuccarello did not make an appearance on the ice for warmups because of an upper-body injury.
Evason hinted that something might be amiss with a Wild player following morning skate earlier in the day, but said at the time that he wouldn't be sure about the status of said player until closer to game time.

With Zuccarello out, Nico Sturm jumped back into the lineup and Minnesota shuffled its forward group around, moving Marcus Foligno to a line with Hartman and Kirill Kaprizov, and Brandon Duhaime into Foligno's normal spot with Joel Eriksson Ek and Jordan Greenway.
Zuccarello has been scorching hot of late, tallying 11 multi-point games in his past 14 games. The absence from the lineup snaps his five-game point streak and his four-game multi-point streak, which was already his second such point streak this season.
The good news for the Wild? Evason said he expects Zuccarello to play Thursday night in Toronto.

Loose pucks

• The Wild loss snapped a nine-game winning streak for Minnesota against Ottawa, the second-longest active streak against any club
• Merrill's 15 points also ties a career high
• Fiala's multi-point game was his 12th of the season
• Hartman's assist gives him four points in his past five games
• Spurgeon now has nine consecutive seasons with at least 20 points
• Four of Nick Bjugstad's five assists this season have come in his past three games played
• Cam Talbot stopped 30 of 34 shots faced
• Connor Brown tallied two assists for Ottawa
• Senators goalie Anton Forsberg made 40 saves

Dan's three stars

1. Thomas Chabot
   2. Kevin Fiala
   3. Connor Brown

Highlights