In Vancouver, Cam Talbot made 22 saves for the Minnesota Wild in a 3-2 win over the Canucks on Tuesday night.
Talbot has won all five of his starts this season.
“We talked about never losing two in a row,” Talbot said. “Coming into a tough building in their home opener, obviously they’re going to have momentum from the crowd behind them, so we established our game early, got out to a lead, which we haven’t been able to do this year, and that set the tone.”
The Wild are 5-1-0 on the season so far.
“This year was just so much easier than last year. You can come in and get comfortable before the season starts,” Talbot said. “I didn’t get a ton of exhibition time, but [I was] working with [goaltending coach Frederic Chabot] and getting all my reps in practice and making sure I was ready for Game 1.”
The Canucks dropped to 3-3-1 after losing their home opener.
Alex Chiasson and Bo Horvat were the Vancouver strikers.
“It was fun to have the fans back in the building again,” Horvat said. “When we gave them something to cheer about, they were cheering loud.”
Mats Zuccarello and Jonas Brodin staked the Wild to a 2-0 lead.
Chiasson cut the deficit to one goal.
“In these tight games it’s a fine line between winning and losing,” Canucks head coach Travis Green said. “We turned over a couple of pucks we would like to have back. Sometimes it’s the difference between one or two mistakes in tight games. We were on the wrong end of it and didn’t create a whole lot. We better capitalize if we are not creating a lot.”
Matt Dumba restored the Wild’s two-goal lead before Horvat scored n the third period to make the 3-2 final.
Thatcher Demko made 27 saves in the Vancouver loss.
“It felt like a playoff game, really tight,” Demko said. “It came down to a game of inches like it typically does when it’s structured that way. We were able to feed off the fans in the third and claw our way back into it. We just came up short.”
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