Last-minute goal by Joel Eriksson Ek lifts Wild past Senators in Saturday matinée

As the Wild awaited the arrival of Quinn Hughes, their makeshift lineup held down the fort.

The Wild outlasted the Senators 3-2 on Saturday afternoon at Grand Casino Arena on a last-minute goal by Joel Eriksson Ek.

Hughes, the star defenseman from Vancouver, is expected to make his Wild debut Sunday in St. Paul against Boston.

Eriksson Ek broke a 2-2 tie with 24 seconds to go in the third period, one-timing in a Marcus Johansson pass from along the boards to give the Wild their third consecutive victory.

“We locked eyes for a little bit, me and Jojo,” Eriksson Ek said of the game-winning goal. “That vision he has, I just knew he was gonna pass it.”

Jesper Wallstedt made 34 saves, and former Centennial High School standout Tyler Pitlick scored his first goal with the Wild while Elk River’s Matt Kiersted made his team debut on the blue line.

Aside from dealing Marco Rossi, Zeev Buium, Liam Ohgren and a first-round draft pick to acquire Hughes, the Wild were missing Jonas Brodin and Jake Middleton to upper-body injuries. Kiersted became the 37th Minnesota-born player to play for the Wild.

Pitlick was up first, deflecting in a shot from captain Jared Spurgeon at 3 minutes, 54 seconds. Then at 16:02, Ryan Hartman redirected in a Johansson feed on the 1-for-3 power play.

Back-to-back penalties by David Jiricek and Eriksson Ek later in the period put the Senators on the power play, and they cashed in just after the Wild survived the 5-on-3 portion when Tim Stützle lunged at a rebound that popped out of Wallstedt’s glove with just 23 seconds left in the second.

As the second period ended, Hartman and the Senators’ Ridly Greig fought, which hinted at the history between these two teams.

Last season, Hartman was suspended 10 games for roughing Stützle and “using his forearm to violently slam” Stützle’s head into the ice after a faceoff.

Hartman later had the suspension reduced to eight games after appealing to Commissioner Gary Bettman.

But the Wild regrouped, with Eriksson Ek burying his third goal in as many games to halt Ottawa’s comeback. The game-winner withstood a video review to ensure the Wild’s Matt Boldy didn’t catch the puck with a high stick before Johannson set up Eriksson Ek.

“I didn’t touch it. I knew I didn’t touch it. So, I wasn’t that worried about it,” Boldy said.

Senators goalie Leevi Merilainen made 22 stops.

The Wild are on an 11-game point streak (9-0-2) at home.

Already depleted because of injuries, the Wild needed to call on even more reinforcements after trading away Rossi, Buium and Ohgren. Besides Kiersted, Nicolas Aube-Kubel also drew in to make his team debut.

Coach John Hynes said he didn’t expect Brodin (upper body injury) to be out more than a week.

The Wild still stuck to their baffling script of getting tested by the teams below them in the standings. As such, the Wild should be back to business with the Bruins (a top-10 team like them) on deck.