OTTAWA - Erik Karlsson scored his first NHL goal and goaltender Mike Brodeur picked up the win in his league debut Saturday night as the Ottawa Senators defeated the Minnesota Wild 4-1.
Karlsson took a pass from Alex Kovalev and fired a point shot through the legs of Wild netminder Niklas Backstrom, who made 20 saves, at 2:55 of the third period.
He also has five assists in 21 games with the Senators this season, that were split by a stint in the American Hockey League with the Binghamton Senators, where he had 11 assists in 12 games.
Shortly afterward Karlsson scored, Martin Havlat tipped a Nick Schultz shot right in front of Brodeur at 4:50 to break the goaltender's shutout bid and snap the Senators home shutout streak at 122 minutes and 45 seconds. Brodeur finished with 22 saves.
Anton Volchenkov, Milan Michalek and Jarkko Ruutu also scored for the Senators (18-13-4) while Peter Regin had two assists.
The Wild (17-15-3) were battling both the flu bug and new equipment as all but nine Wild players had their gear partially of completely burned in a van fire outside Scotiabank Place Friday afternoon.
The team scrambled to get replacement equipment boarded on a plane that left the Twin Cities early Saturday morning headed to Ottawa.
The Senators scored twice in the second period, once in the opening seconds and again in the dying minutes, to grab a 3-0 lead and take control of the game.
Michalek scored just 24 seconds into the period with a shot from the slot, and Ruutu jammed a loose puck past Backstrom with a little over two minutes left to play in the frame.
Volchenkov opened the scoring with a one-timer from the top of the face-off circle that beat Backstrom at 18:05 of the first period.
Notes: Mike Fisher recorded his 300th career point with his first-period assist while Jonathan Cheechoo recorded his 300th point with a second-period assist...The Senators are an Eastern-Conference best 13-4-3 at homeaThe Wild have recorded at least a point on 17 of their past 23 gamesathe Wild are 6-1-3 against the Eastern Conference this yearaWild forward Martin Havlat has played in 499 NHL games with Ottawa, Chicago and MinnesotaaWild defenceman Clayton Stoner picked up his first career point with a third-period assist.
