Mikael Granlund‘s late third period goal gave the Minnesota Wild a 4-3 win over the Oilers in Edmonton Tuesday night.
The Oilers were never able to hold one-goal leads throughout the game and finally succumbed late.
“I saw a hole there and I just tried to shoot through it, and luckily it went in,” Granlund said. “There was a lot of good things tonight with the power play, and there are some things we can do a better job with, but sometimes those pucks just go in, you get a couple of bounces and they go in. You just have to keep shooting and keep getting those chances.”
Eric Staal, Jared Spurgeon and Zach Parise scored for the Wild.
“We have good players, and we have a good team,” Staal said. “We feel like we can come back any time, and if we stay with our game and our structure, we have the talent to be able to cash in on opportunities. You don’t want to give up the first goal, but it happens and you just have to keep playing. The good thing is that we believe in each other and we believe we can continue to come back and play, and tonight was about gutting it out and it felt like we deserved to win.”
Alex Stalock made 34 saves for the win.
Connor McDavid, Alex Chiasson and Leon Draisaitl scored for the Oilers.
“We were the better team 5-on-5, but special teams cost us,” McDavid said. “Our power play didn’t do anything (0-for-5), and they went 3-for-3 on their power play. That’s not good.”
[WATCH: All Wild vs. Oilers highlights]
Cam Talbot made 24 saves in the loss.
“You give up three on the penalty kill and get none on the power play, and you’re not winning,” Edmonton coach Todd McLellan said. “We could play that game 100 times and do the same thing over and over again, and not win it.”
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