Wild shake up lines, get vintage Fleury to beat Habs
Marc-Andre Fleury was in vintage form and mass line changed seemed to do just enough on both ends of the ice to lift the Minnesota Wild 3-1 over the Montreal Canadiens Tuesday night.
Fleury stood on his head for a few saves and the only puck that got by him was a short-angle shot from Cole Caufield that deflected slightly off a Wild stick and spun under Fleury's glove. Otherwise he was perfect, finishing with 26 saves including a game-saver on a penalty shot by Mike Hoffman when the Wild were hanging onto a one-goal lead.
Minnesota mixed up the lines in Monday's practice and sent Freddy Gaudreau onto the top line to center Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello, and it was Gaudreau who assisted on the game-winning goal scored by Brandon Duhaime in the second period.
Duhaime, who played on a line with Joel Eriksson Ek and Ryan Hartman, assisted on the first goal of the game, which was tapped in by Eriksson Ek after a generous bounce off the end boards on Duhaime's shot in the first period. Eriksson Ek's second goal – an empty-netter with 30 seconds to go – seal the win for the Wild.
Here's how the Wild lines looked in the game:
- L1: Kirill Kaprizov, Freddie Gaudreau, Mats Zuccarello
- L2: Marcus Foligno, Marco Rossi, Matt Boldy
- L3: Brandon Duhaime, Joel Eriksson Ek, Ryan Hartman
- L4: Tyson Jost, Sam Steel, Connor Dewar
The victory gets Minnesota to 2-3-1 after starting 0-3.
Up next: Wild at Ottawa, Thursday at 6 p.m. Central Time.
