It wasn’t as boring as the last game these two teams played, but it still wasn’t very fun to watch.

The Ottawa Senators were looking to complete a sweep of the California portion of their ongoing road trip, as well as avenge their previous defeat to the Los Angeles Kings a while back. Despite Fabian Zetterlund scoring in his second consecutive game and Leevi Merilainen stopping 20 of 22, the Sens were beaten in another low-scoring affair, 2-1. You wouldn’t believe these two clubs played an 8-7 game last season.

Despite no goals through the first 40 minutes of play, both Merilainen and Darcy Kuemper were called upon to make some quality saves to keep it that way. Leevi came up big twice against L.A.’s newest $10 million man, Adrian Kempe, while Shane Pinto and Tim Stützle had some of the Senators’ best chances in turn.

Stützle had an especially strong game in terms of possession – he could’ve drawn 4-5 different stick infractions on Kings’ defenders, but none of them were caught by the officials. It was notable enough to be pointed out by the Amazon Prime broadcast – has the league finally stopped drinking Brendan Gallagher’s kool-aid?

I hesitate to say these non-calls made a difference in the result, because the Senators’ power-play was awful the whole night, and the Kings’ aggressive PK unit looked as if they could kill off a dozen more opportunities without issue. That said, Ottawa had a decent PK themselves, and only faltered at the end due to one of a couple of phantom calls on Dylan Cozens. More on this later.

The Kings wound up opening the scoring early in the third, courtesy of Warren Foegele outmuscling Nick Jensen on a routine rush – though Drake Batherson also deserves a shoutout for not backchecking on a wide-open Phillip Danault.

Warren Foegele FINALLY breaks the ice in the 3rd period! 💥🧊 pic.twitter.com/7MriiBPTvQ

— Spittin’ Chiclets (@spittinchiclets) November 25, 2025

As alluded to before, however, Fabian Zetterlund would respond just after the halfway mark, jumping on a rebound following a Nikolas Matinpalo point shot:

Back-to-back games with a goal for @FabianZetterlun! 🚨#GoSensGo | @SportsOnPrimeCA pic.twitter.com/62z6mgJDxh

— Ottawa Senators (@Senators) November 25, 2025

‘Twas only about a minute after that, however, when Cozens was sent to the box for that aforementioned questionable tripping call on Andrei Kuzmenko, who looked like he fell on his own. The Sens killed off 1:59 of the 2:00 before Ottawa native Brandt Clarke deflected the game-winning goal past Merilainen, for a 2-1 Kings victory.

Game Notes:Merilainen was active in his crease and perfect through 40 minutes of play, but as was the case with Linus Ullmark and Anton Forsberg earlier in the month, Kuemper had him beat tonight. Don’t let the Kings’ boring style of play distract you from the fact that they’re like every other team in the league in terms of needing saves to win games. Kuemper is 8-4-4 now, so he hasn’t been a world-beater all year – perhaps the Sens just happened to catch him on a good day.Poor goaltending was the biggest reason the Sens entered this game with an 11-6-4 record, rather than a more impressive one, so it’s good to see both Merilainen and Linus Ullmark improve their play lately. The goal support wasn’t there today, and I still have reservations about their strength on the wings (even with a healthy Brady Tkachuk) before I can call them a wagon, but they’ve outshot and outchanced the collective opposition by a healthy margin this season.Zetterlund has scored in back-to-back games after being snakebitten for parts of two seasons in Ottawa. Finding his groove, as well as a consistent role on one of Ottawa’s two lines, would be huge for both him and the team. What makes early-season games so stressful, especially in this iteration of the Eastern Conference, is that with so many clubs close to .500, there’s going to be a ton of movement up and down the standings. Being in a playoff position at any point of the season is great, but with Brady returning on Friday, simply staying in the race despite his absence was the goal. We’re long overdue for a 4-game winning streak.Stats:

Up Next:Vegas Golden Knights. Wednesday, November 26th. 10:00 PM EST. TSN5.