In St Paul, the Minnesota Wild took a 3-0 lead on Saturday, and then surrendered three goals to the Toronto Maple Leafs, before taking a 4-3 win after the skills portion of the evening’s affairs.
Mats Zuccarello had a goal.
“We did so many real good things,” Wild head coach Dean Evason said. “We had great looks. They did too. It was a real good hockey game. Real good hockey game by two really good teams. It was fun to be part of but whichever way it ended it was a good hockey game.”
Cam Talbot made 39 saves in the Wild win.
Jason Spezza hit for a pair of goals and Auston Matthews tied the game in the Maple Leafs’ three goal second period.
“It’s a big point for us,” Maple Leafs head coach Sheldon Keefe said. “I love that our guys didn’t go away at 3-0. They just dug in and wanted to make a game of it. We fought hard, we played well enough … All those things combined to give us a gutsy character point here on the road.”
Jordan Greenway struck with 24 seconds left in the first period to give the Wild a 1-0 lead.
“Everyone’s going to want to beat us right now,” Greenway said. “So we got to be ready for that and we got to be ready to respond.”
Marcus Foligno extended the lead to 2-0 in the middle frame.
Minnesota improved to 17-6-1.
Kirill Kaprizov was credited with the deciding goal in the skills competition.
Jack Campbell made 37 saves in the Leafs loss.
“We got a lucky break on my first one, good power plays and a little back and forth,” Spezza said. “Two good hockey clubs settled by a shootout is a pretty good game.
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