In Edmonton, Alex Stalock made 28 saves to pick up the second shutout of the evening in a 3-0 win for the Minnesota Wild over the Vancouver Canucks.
The Wild have a 1-0 series lead in their qualifying round series.
“Most important game of the season to date,” Stalock said. “Important to win right now. I don’t think obviously a shutout, when you give up a goal or a few goals or whatever it may be, when you come out with the win, you move up in the series. I think we’re happy with that as a group.”
Kevin Fiala staked Minnesota to all the offense they would need when he struck for a 1-0 lead in the early minutes of the first period; it was a power play goal.
“Happy to be back, great to be back,” Fiala said. “The team did an unbelievable job today to stay disciplined, to stay with each other, to support each other. We won as a team.”
Jared Spurgeon scored twice, including a power play goal, and had three points on the night.
“I thought we did some good things to draw some penalties tonight,” the Canucks’ Bo Horvat said. “Just waiting to get that right call. We’re going to continue to keep working through it and find ways to get some calls in our favor. It’s a long series. Hopefully we can draw some more penalties in Game 2.”
[WATCH: All Wild vs. Canucks highlights]
Jacob Markstrom made 27 saves in the loss.
“Well, we lost, so that’s not the start we wanted,” Markstrom said. “And me personally, not the start as well — letting in those two goals. You want them back. Their goalie didn’t do any mistakes tonight, so we lost the game. Me personally, I got to come back and play better and more consistent.”
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