Chabot scores twice in return as Senators beat Wild

OTTAWA — Thomas Chabot couldn’t have scripted a better game in his return from injury as he scored twice, including the game winner, and picked up an assist in the Ottawa Senators 4-3 win over the Minnesota Wild Tuesday night.

Chabot was back after missing the last four games and hit a career milestone playing in his 300th career game. He's now the ninth defenceman to play 300 games with the Senators.

“Like I said this morning I think it's great to be back and obviously 300 games is something special and I take a lot of pride in that,” said Chabot. “Obviously it's nice to get out here and put a great effort like we did as a team and still stick to it and find a way to win the game.”

Chabot is the Senators workhorse on the back end and on this night, like so many others, led all defencemen playing 24:35.

His absence has been noticeable as he is the stabilizing force on Ottawa’s blue line and there was no denying his immediate impact.

"He's great, he changes the complexion of our team obviously,” said Brady Tkachuk, who scored a power-play goal. “We know how much he plays and how much he's out there, but yeah, he's a difference maker… he took over tonight's game and won it for us.”

Tim Stutzle also scored, while Anton Forsberg stopped 40 shots.

Kevin Fiala, Jared Spurgeon and Jon Merrill scored for the Wild (31-14-3), who are playing the second of four games on its Canadian road trip. Cam Talbot made 30 saves.

Tuesday’s game wrapped up a stretch of ten games in 16 nights for the Senators (19-26-5). Ottawa is off until Saturday when they host Montreal.

The difference was the start as Ottawa jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead, but also set the tone for the game with a hard, physical presence.

“It’s more frustrating