Batherson gets 3 points, Senators cruise past Bruins for 3rd straight win

OTTAWA -- Drake Batherson and Tim Stutzle each had two goals and an assist for the Ottawa Senators in a 7-2 win against the Boston Bruins at Canadian Tire Centre on Monday.

It was the second consecutive three-point game for Batherson, who also had two goals and an assist in a 7-1 win at the Washington Capitals on Saturday.

“It’s huge,” Batherson said of the win. “Kind of just playing good defensively, leading to some offense. Obviously, the power play was good, special teams, so when you’re doing all of those things, you’re bound to score a few.”

Jake Sanderson had three assists, and Fabian Zetterlund had a goal and an assist for the Senators (5-4-1), who have won three straight and are 3-0-1 in their past four games. Leevi Merilainen made 26 saves for his first win of the season; he was recalled from a conditioning stint with Belleville of the American Hockey League on Thursday.

“Big response,” Ottawa coach Travis Green said of Merilainen’s performance. “I think it’s been a battle for him. You know, he probably didn’t have his best camp that he envisioned, but he went down, played some games, worked hard. … It was nice to see him get the result.”

Morgan Geekie and Viktor Arvidsson each scored, and Jeremy Swayman made 17 saves for the Bruins (4-7-0), who have lost seven of their past eight.

“Probably not serious enough right from the start and that’s really unacceptable,” Boston coach Marco Sturm said.

The Senators were 4-for-5 on the power play; the Bruins were 0-for-1.

“We’re probably the worst penalized team in the League, so it finally caught up to us,” Sturm said. “You can blame the ref, whatever you want, but it’s on us if we’re going to do that and be in the box the whole time. It’s not going to work and not going to win hockey games.”

Geekie gave Boston a 1-0 lead at 3:06 of the first period. He intercepted a Zetterlund pass attempt near the Ottawa blue line and beat Merilainen glove side with a wrist shot from the top of the left face-off circle.

It was Geekie’s fifth goal in his past four games.

“It can’t get much worse, really,” Geekie said. “I don’t know, sorry. I just know how hard this group works and how bad everybody wants it, and then to show up like that is just, like, I don’t know.”

Batherson swept in a rebound off a Ridly Greig shot at the edge of the crease on a power play to tie it 1-1 at 10:25.

Claude Giroux redirected a Michael Amadio centering pass to put the Senators up 2-1 at 1:08 of the second period.

Batherson scored his second goal of the game to make it 3-1 at 14:44 when he took a centering pass from Zetterlund and beat Swayman blocker side with a wrist shot from the slot.

Stutzle pushed it to 4-1 13 seconds into the third period, putting a wrist shot past Swayman’s glove from the top of the left face-off circle on a power play. He scored his second power-play goal of the period when he tipped in a Sanderson point shot for a 5-1 advantage at 9:33.

Stutzle had debuted a new tape job on his stick to start the third period.

“I don’t even know how many times I fumbled the puck in the first two periods,” Stutzle said. “Kind of changed it up. I know [assistant coach Daniel Alfredsson has been] in my ear for a while to switch it. For him, I guess.”

Nick Cousins buried a Stutzle rebound from in front to extend the lead to 6-1 at 12:22.

Zetterlund made it 7-1 at 13:04, scoring his first goal of the season with a long-range one-timer on a power play.

“We didn’t panic at all in this room when we didn’t have a great start,” Stutzle said of the team’s 2-4-0 start to the season. “We knew we were going to be good. We know we have a good team, and if we play the way we want to play, we have a chance to win every night. There was no panic at all.”

Arvidsson beat a heavily screened Merilainen from distance at 19:50 for the 7-2 final.

“We put them on the power play five times, they score four of them,” Geekie said. “It’s like you’re shooting yourselves in the foot. It’s been like that all year, but 5-on-5, we don’t really create a ton. And I mean, we’re a little better defensively, but we’re still giving up lapses and stuff like that. I don’t know. I wish I could tell you more. It’s tough today.”

NOTES: The Senators scored seven goals in consecutive games for the second time in franchise history (also Nov. 3-5, 1993). … Ottawa has killed off six straight penalties, dating back to Oct. 23.