In St Paul, the Minnesota Wild’s Alex Stalock entered the game in the second period after Devan Dubnyk left the match with the Edmonton Oilers, with an injury.
Stalock made 16 saves in a 3-0 win over the Oilers.
“It was a good game,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said. “We played some good games, but that was our most complete game this year.”
Eric Staal struck for his first two goals and the season and assisted on the third goal for the Wild, scored by Brad Hunt.
“Anytime you start a season, you want to get that first one out of the way as soon as possible, and obviously [it’s been] pretty challenging [for me] there for a little bit,” Staal said. “Felt good to get that one, and it’s amazing what a little confidence will do. … But it was a big win by our guys tonight. We competed hard, and we did a great job limiting their big players and frustrating [them]. We’ll take it and keep building from here.”
The Oilers have lost two in a row, both by shutouts.
“First time losing two in a row (this season), and first real game I thought we probably got outcompeted for most of the game, just on loose puck battles and stuff,” Edmonton center Ryan Nugent-Hopkins said. “It’s the first time a game like this has happened to us in the first 10 [minutes].
“It’s bound to happen, things like this happen to any team throughout the League and throughout the season, and it’s just a matter of how we bounce back and how we respond back at home.”
[WATCH: All Oilers vs. Wild highlights]
Mike Smith made 27 saves in the loss.
“It’s hard to win every game,” Oilers coach Dave Tippett said. “You’ve got teams, especially you look at the last two teams we played, the last three teams played (Detroit Red Wings, Jets, Wild), they’re all desperate to try get themselves back in the [Stanley Cup Playoff] race even early. We’ve had a pretty good start, but when you play a desperate team, you better play desperate yourself, and we didn’t have the juice in our tank or gas in our tank to do that. We got behind early and just chased it the whole game.”
There was no update on Dubnyk after the game.
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