In Glendale, Kaapo Kahkonen made 24 saves to help the Minnesota Wild defeat the Coyotes, 5-2, on Wednesday night.
The Wild improved to 9-3-0.
“Right from the first day of training camp, our work ethic has been there. Guys started jelling and it’s been fun,” Minnesota’s Marcus Foligno (goal) said. “It’s nice to have the wins early.”
Kevin Fiala hit for a goal and three points in the win.
“We’ve played awesome all year, but this time I felt like we started great and just kept it for 60 minutes,” Fiala said. “It’s better to play with the lead, for sure.”
Shayne Gostisbehere scored for Arizona in the third period.
“When you’re down 2-0 in the first every time, it’s hard to have one comeback, much less a bunch of comebacks,” Gostisbehere said. “I think for us, we’ve got to have better starts. … We played right into their hands, and they fed off turnovers in the first and second periods.”
The Coyotes dropped to 1-11-1.
“We can be a hardworking, grind it out kind of team,” Arizona’s Andrew Ladd (goal) said. “There’s no secret sauce to us coming up with different systems and better systems and that stuff. [The Wild] play a fast-paced game, with groups of five that pressure you all over the ice. That creates problems for other teams. The way to combat that is to not let them get you on your heels, make good decisions, put the puck in places where they can’t make clean passes. … That’s part of the growth our team needs to make as we move forward.”
Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Dmitry Kulikov also scored for Minnesota.
“We liked our business-like attitude,” Minnesota head coach Dean Evason said. “We talked to the guys this morning. It’s not that we didn’t expect them to not respect this hockey club, but we really liked our attitude here tonight.”
Karel Vejmelka got the start for Arizona and surrendered five goals and make 17 saves through the second period, he was given the hook in the second intermission.
Scott Wedgewood made eight saves in the third period.
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