In St Paul, the visiting New York Islanders took a 2-1 lead into the third period on Sunday.
As the Minnesota Wild have been want to do this season, they posted four unanswered goals in the third for a 5-2 win.
“It was a tremendous hockey game,” Minnesota head coach Dean Evason said. “It was just a real good hockey game. It was heavy, it was hard. There was no cheap stuff, it was just straight up. There was some chances, but really good defensive play, goaltenders played really well. It was a fun game to be part of.”
Kaapo Kahkonen made 19 saves for the Wild win.
Anders Lee scored both goals for the Isles.
New York dropped to 5-3-2.
“I just thought they came into the third with a little more jump,” New York’s Zdeno Chara said. “They were playing a little bit more on their toes. I think we were just kind of sitting on that lead and not playing the way we’re capable of.”
Nick Bjugstad scored in the middle frame to get the Wild even, 1-1, after Lee scored in the first period.
Lee restored the lead just over two minutes later.
The Wild opened the third period with a goal from Ryan Hartman at 7:17 to tie it, 2-2.
“It’s the first 11 games and there’s still a lot of hockey,” Hartman said. “Obviously, I’d like to continue to do this and I’m going to strive to do that, but we’ve got a lot of guys that can do it as well and we’re getting scoring from up and down our lineup, so it’s been good for us.”
Brandon Duhaime put Minnesota ahead, 3-2, with a strike two minutes later.
Jonas Brodin wristed a shot from the right face-off circle in the defensive zone into the empty cage for a 4-2 lead with less than two minutes on the clock.
Not to be outdone, Matt Dumba rifled a shot from below the Wild goal line for the second empty-net strike to ice the win at 5-2.
“I think it was just a good game up until (the third),” Lee said. “I think they’re a team that can create a lot of offense and transition really well, so they definitely came at us all night.
” … They were just able to execute on a couple of their chances in the third, and the next thing you know it’s a lead and they go from there.”
Minnesota improved to 8-3-0.
Semyon Varlamov made 34 saves in the Isles loss, it was his first game of the season.
“I thought ‘Varly’ was fine,” Islanders head coach Barry Trotz said. “I thought on their first goal, a little bit of a handle, a little quicker decision, but that’ll come with more game action. For the most part, I thought he was good. He only gave up three goals. There were two empty-nets that they scored.
“Not enough push in the third. They got it tied up, and they got energized by the crowd, came at us. We needed a little bit of a better push there.”
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