Sometimes when you’re struggling, a nice weekend can turn it all around. After thumping the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-0 on Saturday, the Senators kept the good times rolling on Sunday with a 3-2 home win over the Dallas Stars.
22-year-old rookie Leevi Merilainen stopped 24 of 26 shots, winning both ends of the back-to-back situation. His start again on Sunday tells you a lot about the state of Ottawa’s goaltending. Merilainen started the year as the Sens’ fourth option on the organizational depth chart, but now with only 8 NHL games under his belt, he’s now got to be the clear number one until Linus Ullmark returns from a back injury.
Dallas opened the scoring early with a goal in the first by Jason Robertson. He took a nice feed in the slot and ripped it low past a screened Leevi Merilainen.
That lead held up until early in the second period when the Sens scored twice in 39 seconds. First, Josh Norris bunted home in a Drake Batherson saucer pass that was two feet off the ice. Then Jake Sanderson looped around the Dallas net to hit a wide open Tim Stutzle in the slot. Stutzle lifted it over Stars goalie Casey DeSmith to make it 2-1 Ottawa.
With Norris off for tripping (after what looked like a dive by Miro Heiskanen), Dallas appeared to tie the game at 2. But Roope Hintz’s goal was overturned by Ottawa’s offside challenge.
21 seconds into the final frame, not to be outdone by the Norris bunt, Matthew Highmore scored his first goal as a Senator. Alone at the side of the net, he took a nice feed from Nick Cousins. His first shot bounced upward off the post, then he swatted the puck out of the air with a backhander into an empty cage and that turned out to be the winner.
Evgenii Dadonov made the Senators pay (he has a nasty habit of doing that) for a puck over glass call in the late going. With the goalie pulled, Dadonov scored on the ensuing 6 on 4, but the Sens evoked their no comeback clause and shut the door after that.
The win improves the Sens’ record to 21-18-3. Their next game is Tuesday on the road against the New York Islanders.
