Hartman, Wallstedt lead Wild to dominant win over Senators

After a bit of a lull, the Wild have looked a lot more like themselves over their past couple games. They got two goals from red-hot center Ryan Hartman and 33 saves from Jesper Wallstedt in a commanding 4-1 win over the Ottawa Senators on Saturday afternoon.

This game meant more to the Senators than it did to the Wild. Ottawa is in the middle of a heated race for a wild card spot in the Eastern Conference, so this home loss dealt a blow to that pursuit. Minnesota officially clinched a playoff spot on Thursday, and the only thing on the line for the Wild — other than trying to take some momentum into the postseason — is potentially catching the Stars for home-ice advantage in their first-round series.

This was an intense, physical game between two good teams, but the Senators could never put together much sustained pressure on the Wild's net. Although Ottawa had a 34-23 advantage in shots on goal, Minnesota was clearly the more dangerous team in the offensive zone.

Wallstedt came a few minutes from what would've been his fifth shutout of the season. He'll settle for stopping 33 of 34 shots in his 16th victory of the year. The .971 save percentage is his best mark in a start since he recorded shutout No. 4 all the way back on December 12.

The Wild struck first midway through the game's opening period with a Jonas Brodin goal that took a couple fortunate bounces and got past Ottawa's Linus Ullmark. It was Brodin's fourth goal of the year, with assists from Vladimir Tarasenko and Jared Spurgeon.

Later in the period, Hartman's 21st goal of the season made it 2-0, as Mats Zuccarello found him on the back door to cap off an odd-man rush right after the conclusion of a Senators power play. That marked the fourth straight game with a goal for Hartman. And he wasn't done.

Late in the second period, Zuccarello set up Hartman again to make it 3-0. That's two straight games with two goals for the Wild's top-line center, who previously hadn't had a multi-goal game since the season opener. He's scored six times in the last four games and is up to 22 goals on the year.