Wild crater in 6-0 loss to Ottawa that ends their three-game winning streak

KANATA, ONT. – When they’ve had clunkers in the past, the Wild usually bounced back quickly.

But their latest might be harder to forget.

Ryan Hartman could be facing a suspension after getting ejected for intent to injure, a penalty that led to a five-minute power play in which the Senators scored three times to steamroll the Wild 6-0 Saturday at Canadian Tire Centre and end their three-game win streak.

“Even without that, we’re not even close,” veteran winger Mats Zuccarello said. “I haven’t seen us like this in a while, so this is not good enough, and hopefully it was a one-off.”

Already ahead 3-0, Ottawa blitzed the Wild for three more goals in 2 minutes, 14 seconds early in the third period after Hartman was assessed a match penalty for pushing the Senators’ Tim Stützle to the ice following a faceoff late in the second.

A match penalty is automatically reviewed by the NHL Department of Player Safety, which means Hartman could receive further discipline.

Last season, Hartman was suspended three games for unsportsmanlike conduct after throwing his stick in the direction of officials during a 2-1 loss to Vegas on March 30. That was Hartman’s fourth suspension, and his status as a repeat offender was taken into consideration.

Hartman did not speak after the game.

“We’ll see what the league has to do about that,” alternate captain Marcus Foligno said. “There’s going to be bigger battles in the playoffs, so I don’t know if that’s too serious.”

Earlier in the second period, Hartman was penalized for roughing Stützle, who was also reprimanded for slashing Hartman. But the Wild were dealt an extra penalty because Hartman was called for embellishment; he fell to the ice after the slash.

“It’s a frustrating game,” Foligno said. “We got blood flowing. It is what it is. You take shots at us, and Stützle’s going to do his thing. But we gotta be smarter.”

Hartman’s ejection came at the conclusion of the second, so Ottawa started the third period with that extended power play.

Jake Sanderson connected on a point shot at 38 seconds, Brady Tkachuk threw a shot through Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson at 1:37, and then during a five-on-three (Jake Middleton went to the penalty box for elbowing), Drake Batherson sunk a one-timer from the left faceoff circle at 2:52.

The Senators finished 3-for-8 on the power play.

“That’s not the crux of what happened in the game,” said coach John Hynes, who felt the game got away from the Wild from the get-go.

Hynes, otherwise, kept many of his postgame answers short — even at one point saying, “I don’t want to really comment on it right now,” when asked about the team moving past a game like this.

Gustavsson, who valiantly tried to avoid a blowout through the first two periods, was on the hook for all of Ottawa’s offense and finished with a season-high 46 saves compared to just 16 by the Senators’ Leevi Merilainen en route to the Wild’s third shutout.

“It’s unacceptable start to finish,” defenseman Brock Faber said. “We’re better than that. We have more pride than that.”

The Wild’s 16 shots tied their season low, and the six-goal deficit matched their worst loss.

“Embarrassing,” Zuccarello said. “Outworked. Outskilled. Terrible.”

During the second of three unsuccessful power plays by the Wild, Josh Norris was first to an Ottawa clear and wired the puck by Gustavsson with 1:59 left in a first period that began after fans booed during the U.S. national anthem; President Donald Trump’s tariffs went into effect Saturday, and he has talked of Canada becoming the 51st state.

A pair of goals 1:07 apart in the second tightened the Senators’ control.

During four-on-four action, Stützle buried a give-and-go with Tkachuk with a net-front redirect at 7:38 before Michael Amadio lifted in a behind-the-net pass at 8:45.

BOXSCORE: Senators 6, Wild 0

NHL standings

“No forecheck,” Faber said. “They were working all of us in the corners, outworking us. They outdetailed us, and they built a lead and kept building.”

This collapse came after the Wild were machinelike in front of Marc-Andre Fleury to help the goaltender commemorate his final game in his native Quebec with a 4-0 shutout over Montreal on Thursday.

But the Wild didn’t provide Gustavsson with the same precision during his own trip down memory lane against his former team.

“He played so well, and he’s been doing such a good job this year,” Foligno said. “To come back into his old team’s barn, it’s frustrating.”

The Wild were still without leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov, defenseman Jonas Brodin and forward Marcus Johansson due to injury, and now they could be down another forward if Hartman is suspended.

But there’s a chance Brodin and Johansson join the Wild for their road trip finale Tuesday at Boston.

“We gotta show up for the next one,” Zuccarello said.