Wild pot 5 unanswered to chase Primeau, send hapless Habs to 9th loss in last 10
Connor Dewar got his first career goal and added an assist when Nico Sturm scored 22 seconds later, helping the Minnesota Wild match their franchise record for goals in an 8-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens on Monday night.
Jared Spurgeon, Marcus Foligno, Mats Zuccarello, Matt Boldy, Jordie Benn and Kevin Fiala also scored as Minnesota dominated NHL-worst Montreal to ease Cam Talbot’s return to the net.
Zuccarello squeezed a bad-angle shot past goalie Cayden Primeau with 31 seconds left in the second period for a 5-1 lead for the Wild, who are 10-0-1 with a 56-25 scoring margin in their last 11 games at Xcel Energy Center. Their only home regulation loss since Nov. 16 was to St. Louis in the Winter Classic at Target Field on Jan. 1.
Talbot made 14 saves in two periods for his first win since Dec. 9. The all-star missed the last six games with a lower-body injury sustained in the subzero temperature during the Winter Classic, and over the three weeks prior to that the Wild also had four games postponed by opponent COVID-19 outbreaks.
Kaapo Kahkonen, who went 5-0-1 during Talbot’s absence, took over for the third period and gave up a goal to former teammate Rem Pitlick.
WATCH | Wild match single-game franchise goal record in rout of Habs:
Kevin Fiala scored the final goal as the Minnesota Wild matched their franchise record for goals with an 8-2 win over the Montreal Canadiens. 0:59
Pitlick has two goals in six games with the Canadiens, who claimed him off waivers from the Wild two weeks ago when he was struggling to accept a bottom-six forward spot.
The fourth line Pitlick left behind made quite a mark on this game, more evidence of the enviable depth the Wild have assembled under general manager Bill Guerin.
Dewar scored on a shot from the slot that scraped the crossbar. Then he used his stick to route Spurgeon’s pass toward Sturm for the tap-in and a 4-1 lead at 4:23 of the second period.
CONNOR DEWAR FIRST GOAL ALERT 🚨 <a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/mnwild?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>#mnwild</a> <a href=”https://t.co/I1xLsw0bY3″>pic.twitter.com/I1xLsw0bY3</a>
—@mnwild
The Wild had a 21-8 shots advantage in the first period over the depleted Canadiens, who lost centre Christian Dvorak to an unspecified injury on his first shift after a hit by Spurgeon.
With goalie Carey Price in treatment for substance abuse and Jake Allen sidelined by a long-term injury, the Canadiens had turned to Sam Montembault, who missed his second straight game with an injury.
Jonathan Drouin, Brendan Gallagher, Mathieu Perreault and Shea Weber are among the notable names on the injury list for the Canadiens, who made their first trip to Minnesota in more than 27 months. The Wild have won eight straight home games against Montreal.
View original article here Source