Ottawa Senators make comeback, topple Minnesota Wild 4-3 -NHL Match Update
Ottawa earned its first victory of the 2011-2012 National Hockey League (NHL) regular season as Senators made a miraculous comeback and took the matchup in an uncertain shootout to win against Minnesota Wild, 4-2, at an overcrowded Scotiabank Place in Ottawa,
Ontario, Canada, Monday night, Tuesday night, October 11.
Since it was their 20th home season opening matchup, Ottawa Senators wanted to make it extra special for their fans and the crowd that was present there by playing a wild contest, and wild it certainly was.
"Everybody should be excited about home openers", Ottawa coach, Paul MacLean, said. "It's a great opportunity for us to show our fans the type of team we want to be. You might have a little anxiety about it, but you should be able to put your best foot forward".
After the first period, Senators were down, 2-1, as Kyle Brodziak scored his first nearly midway through and former Senators player, Devin Setoguchi, heated up an already ablaze crowd by scoring his second on a power play when Jason Spezza was booked with
a minor for slashing.
Nick Foligno finally put Senators on the scoreboard by scoring at the 8:17 mark of the second period. Ottawa was awarded two power play opportunities when Brett Bulmer and Darroll Powe were penalised, but Minnesota managed to kill off both.
Nick Johnson scored Minnesota’s final goal in the opening two minutes of the final period followed by Chris Neil and Colin Greening less than a few minutes apart to level the match and throw the crowd into a wild frenzy.
An overtime extension was forced, which was scoreless, resulting in a shootout decider.
Ottawa’s Milan Michalek, Jason Spezza and Daniel Alfredsson, all scored their shootout chances for a perfect record by Senators, without the need to even give Minnesota another shot.
"Obviously if we're doing it right, we can demand our young guys do it right", Neil said. "Tonight we were able to do that for almost a full 60. I think tonight we're pretty happy with the win because we worked hard and we deserved it".
Senators play their next game against Colorado Avalanche on Thursday, while Wild return home on the same day to face-off with Edmonton Oilers.
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