In St Paul, the Minnesota Wild built a 3-0 lead in the first period and then held off the Vancouver Canucks on Thursday night for a 4-2 win.
Brad Hunt and Kevin Fiala had two points each with a goal apiece in the win.
“It’s always nice to play with the lead,” Fiala said. “No matter how good a team is, it’s always tough to score in the third period. I feel like we did a good job today.”
Alex Stalock made 24 saves for the win.
“We’re a tough team to play against, a frustrating team to play against,” Stalock said. “You saw that by the end. It frustrates them. … We’re not on a break anymore, it’s time to go.”
J.T. Miller and Antoine Roussel tried to rally the Canucks when they cut the deficit to one goal.
“Believe it or not, I didn’t mind parts of our game,” Canucks coach Travis Green said. “You don’t usually say that when you’re down 3-0 after the first period, but it felt like we had some good looks, we missed some good chances; I felt like we were unlucky to be down 3-0 after one.”
Ryan Hartman scored for the Wild, and Zach Parise potted his 20th of the campaign.
[WATCH: All Canucks vs. Wild highlights]
Jacob Markstrom made 33 saves in the loss.
“Our guys competed right to the end,” Green said. “We just couldn’t find one to make it 3-2. I thought if we could find one there in the second, it would have been a different third, but our guys played hard right to the end.”
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