In Montreal, the visiting Minnesota Wild put on a display of special teams on Tuesday night.
“We were fortunate with a couple of PK goals early, but we liked our 5-on-5 game early as well,” Wild coach Dean Evason said. “We hit a couple of posts, we had a lot of good opportunities there too, we just didn’t finish. So, I liked our overall game too.”
In a 5-2 win over the Canadiens, the Wild hot for three power play goals, and two shorthanded strikes.
“I think we’ve got to stay out of the penalty box,” Canadiens forward Sean Monahan said. “I mean, when you get that many touches and that many opportunities, it’s going to come to bite you. But our power play, we’ve got to be better and start to simplify it. And I think when we do that, it’s going to generate a lot.”
Joel Eriksson Ek scored twice on the power play for Minnesota.
Brandon Duhaime scored midway through the first period on a shorthanded situation to give the Wild a 1-0 lead.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 26 saves in the Minnesota win.
“’Flower’ was really good, he kept us in the game,” Evason said.
Just 25 seconds after the opening goal, the Wild hit again on the same penalty on a marker from Connor Dewar for a 2-0 advantage.
Eriksson Ek hit for his first power play goal at 2:17 of the middle frame on a two-skater advantage to stretch the lead to 3-0..
“We just kind of came out pretty flat and didn’t have a great start,” Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki said. “We took way too many penalties again and kind of dug ourselves too big of a hole. When you take that many penalties, it just kind of ruins the flow of the game and we just kind of shot ourselves in the foot the last couple of games with penalties.”
Tanner Pearson broke through in the second period to get the Habs on the board with a 3-1 count.
Late in the second, Kirill Kaprizov hit off the power play to give the Wild a 4-1 lead headed to the third.
Eriksson Ek ballooned the advantage to 5-1 with the third power play strike early in the third.
“Our PK’s been good,” Evason said. “They have obviously pressured and had a lot of good opportunities. So, it’s nice to get our power play going too.”
Alex Newhook struck for a goal late in the third to make it 5-2 for the final score.
Sam Montembeault made 30 saves in the Montreal loss.
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