The age-less one, Eric Staal, struck for two goals Friday night as the Minnesota Wild defeated the Vegas Golden Knights, 5-2.
Yes, that’s the right, the Knights lost a game; a truly rare event in a rare season for an expansion franchise.
The Wild improved to 28-18-5 with the win and are adding points in their chase up the Central ladder.
“We stayed with our game,” Staal said. “[The Golden Knights] had a little push there, but they’re the top of the [Western Conference] for a reason. They’ve got some good players and [are] playing a strong game all season. So, it was nice for us to get it done and get the win.”
Minnesota are 6-1-1 in the past eight games.
Charlie Coyle, Tyler Ennis and Jared Spurgeon potted single markers in the win.
“We like playing in this building, we’re comfortable,” Coyle said. “We know when we get the momentum right from the start and the crowd gets into it, we feed off of that too. It gets us going right away. [We have to] make sure we carry that into tomorrow [against the Dallas Stars]. We’re capable of it. We just have to prove it.”
Vegas dropped to 34-13-3 with the loss.
“We didn’t play well at all tonight,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “We looked like a tired team for the first time this year. There’s no excuse. You play back-to-back, everybody plays them, but I didn’t like our team tonight. We had no compete and we didn’t win 1-on-1 battles and that slow start, and that was most of the game.”
Erik Haula and Nate Schmidt struck for goals for Vegas.
“This game is forgotten about as soon as I leave this (media) scrum,” Schmidt said. “That’s the best way to look forward, because you play a good team (at the Washington Capitals on Sunday), and the travel’s not going to get any easier. So, make sure you keep yourself rested and do the right things after the game.”
Devan Dubnyk made 22 saves to pick up the win.
“A statement game would be if we were able to go into [Las Vegas] and win,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said after the win. “When a team is tired, no matter how good they are, I mean, [the Golden Knights’ 3-2 overtime win against the Winnipeg Jets] was a really good game and they pushed the pace right into overtime last night. We thought if we played as well as we can, we might be able to get a few tonight.”
[WATCH: All Golden Knights vs. Wild highlights]
Malcolm Subban took the loss on 31 saves.
“I mean, I didn’t like many of our players tonight, but again, they are back-to-back, you get ready for the next one and move on. But we weren’t good enough, we didn’t compete hard enough. … It’s a team effort tonight. We win as a team, we lose as a team, and I thought we definitely lost as a team tonight,” Gallant said after the loss.
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