Well, that was unexpected.
On Monday night, the Minnesota Wild limped into Vegas to face the Golden Knights and found a way to a 4-2 win.
Jared Spurgeon set up game winner in Vegas – file photo courtesy of Lewis Bleiman
With the teams tied at 2-2 heading into the third, Charlie Coyle broke the deadlock with a goal 14:29 to send the Wild to the win.
“It started with [forwards Joel Erikkson Ek and Luke Kunin] with their changes,” Coyle said. “They came off, fresh legs, and we had control. That’s unselfishness. That’s what we need. They don’t get credit, but they should. It was just a heads-up play by Spurgeon.”
Devan Dubnyk made 30 saves to get the win.
The Wild improved to 25-21-3.
“I think 4-1 [against them], it’s great, but it doesn’t tell the entire story,” Dubnyk said. “They’ve all been great hockey games; we just happen to be on the right side of it. They’re certainly challenging games, certainly they’re not cakewalks, but they’re fun games to be in and fortunately we’ve been able to get the points out of it.”
Where the Wild are consistent is playing Vegas, they are 4-2-1 versus the Knights.
Alex Tuch and Max Pacioretty were the goal scorers for Vegas.
“I don’t think we played good today,” Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant said. “I don’t think we showed up ready to play against a team that was aggressive for points.”
Mikko Koivu, Marcus Foligno and Eric Staal also had strikes for the Wild.
The Knights dropped to 29-18-4.
[WATCH: All Wild vs. Golden Knights highlights]
Marc-Andre Fleury made 18 saves in the loss.
“I thought we couldn’t sustain pressure. It got away from us in the third. They were able to capitalize on a few more opportunities, and I guess maybe they were a little bit hungrier than we were tonight,” Tuch said after the home loss.
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