Joel Eriksson Ek converted twice on the power play and Brandon Duhaime and Connor Dewar each scored a short-handed goal 25 seconds apart Tuesday, lifting the visiting Minnesota Wild to a 5-2 victory over the Montreal Canadiens.
Kirill Kaprizov scored a goal and set up two others and Mats Zuccarello notched three assists as the Wild improved to 15-1-0 in their past 16 meetings with the Canadiens.
Minnesota’s Marc-Andre Fleury got the better of Montreal’s Sam Montembeault in a battle of Quebec-born goaltenders. Fleury finished with 27 saves, including a windmill stop on Canadiens defenseman Johnathan Kovacevic early in the third period. Montembeault yielded five goals on 35 shots.
The Wild opened the scoring at 9:20 of the first period despite Ryan Hartman sitting in the box while serving a tripping penalty. Duhaime opted to keep the puck on a two-on-one rush and wired a shot from the left circle that sailed inside the right post. The goal was Duhaime’s second in as many games.
Dewar doubled the advantage in short order as he chipped the puck past Montembeault for his first goal of the season.
Minnesota converted a five-on-three power play to increase its lead to 3-0 at 2:17 of the second period. Zuccarello and Kaprizov exchanged passes behind the net before feeding Eriksson Ek, who made no mistake from in front.
Tanner Pearson responded 7 1/2 minutes later by converting a two-on-one rush to put Montreal on the scoreboard. Zuccarello’s sharp diagonal pass from above the left circle was one-timed home from deep in the right circle by Kaprizov. The goal, which was Kaprizov’s first of the season, pushed the Wild’s lead to 4-1 with 2:38 remaining in the second period.
Eriksson Ek cleaned up a loose puck in front at 5:20 of the third period for his second power-play goal of the night and third of the season. He recorded two goals and two assists to fuel Minnesota to a two-game season sweep of the Canadiens in 2022-23.
Montreal’s Alex Newhook capped the scoring by tallying with 2:25 remaining in the third period.
–Field Level Media
