In St Paul, Mats Zuccarello scored his fourth goal in two days, and the Minnesota Wild downed the Ottawa Senators, 4-2 in a Sunday matinee.
Filip Gustavsson made 25 saves in the Wild win.
“I think home or road we weren’t very good at the start (of the season),” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “Certainly this crowd and the energy that they’re giving us, it’s exciting to play here, and it’s nice to play well in front of them and obviously give them some wins.”
Minnesota improved to 18-11-2.
Kirill Kaprizov, who had a goal and three points on the day, opened the scoring in the first period on a snap shot from the right side for a 1-0 lead.
“To be honest, you guys won’t let me forget how many goals I get or not,” Kaprizov said through a Russian interpreter. “To me, obviously the most important thing is wins over losses.
“It’s my job to go out there and play and do the best that I can, and for you guys to make those comparisons and assumptions.”
Zuccarello pushed pushed the advantage to 2-0 at 1:34 in the middle frame.
Jared Spurgeon took a nifty pass from Kaprizov through the legs of Ottawa’s Travis Hamonic to drive the net for a 3-0 lead.
Ottawa dropped to 14-15-2.
“We didn’t score on our chances, and then they get the same chance and they score,” Senators coach D.J. Smith said. “Whether the goalie made a save or bounce, whatever the case may be, those gotta go in the net. We come out, scored, maybe it’s a different game, but at the end of the day, we still shot ourselves in the foot with two bad turnovers that end up in our net.
“You’re down 3-0 on the road, it’s tough to win.”
Ottawa finally got on the board at 4:58 of the third period when Mark Kastelic tipped a point shot from Harmonic to make it 3-1.
“It took us until the last 10 minutes,” Kastelic said. “We came back in the third period, that’s what we talked about in the first period and the second period. We made a great push. We had a chance to tie the game and at least get a point in a really tough building against a really good team.”
With an extra skater on the ice, Claude Giroux banged in a marker to cut the deficit to 3-2 with 1:40 left in regulation.
“I think just commitment to defense first and just playing the right way. Nothing too fancy, getting pucks in,” Spurgeon said. “That’s the way we play, and that’s the way when we’re winning games, that’s how we do it. So simplifying our game and every line. I think last game (4-1 win against the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday) we had too many penalties and you take away the rhythm, and this one was a bit better.”
The Wild sealed it on an empty-goal with 25 seconds left in the game on a strike by Frederick Gaudreau.
Anton Forsberg made 19 saves in the Sens loss.
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