NHL Update: Minnesota Wild beat Edmonton Oilers, 4-1
Matt Cullen and Brent Burns lit the lamp early in the opening period, leading Minnesota Wild to a 4-1 victory over Edmonton Oilers, at Rexall Place on Tuesday night.
“It’s huge to start off a road trip with a win like this,” Minnesota captain Mikko Koivu said. “We took too many penalties. But the points are what matters.”
Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Andrew Brunette both scored goals in the final session for Wild, which has won six of its previous nine contests. Eric Nystrom assisted twice and Anton Khudobin turned
aside 31 shots in the win.
"It really wasn't our best game, but at least we got the two points," said Kyle Brodziak. "That's the most important thing, but we know that we must play better if we're going to stay competitive."
Magnus Paajarvi tallied the lone goal and Nikolai Khabibulin was dented for four goals on 26 shots for Edmonton, which returned home after a 1-4-0 road trip.
"It's a frustrating loss at home," said Oilers forward Taylor Hall. "This is a place that we want to make teams scared to come into. With the exception of the first few minutes, we played
a pretty good game. They put us on their heels at a time when we should be doing that to them."
Minnesota got on the board first for 1-0 lead 1 ½ minutes in the opening period. Nystrom set up the play by hitting a pass to streaking Cullen on his way to the net. After Cullen’s initial
shot was saved, Cullen backhanded his own rebound past Edmonton goalie.
Burns put Minnesota ahead with two-goal advantage 2-0 after less than two minutes. He fired a straight shot that sailed through traffic and into the Oilers net for his team-leading 13th goal.
Edmonton got an opportunity on anaemic power-play to get back into the play with a long two-man advantage halfway through the middle stanza, but only mustered one shot.
Wild extended the lead to 3-0 in the middle of the final period. It happened so when Oilers defenseman Tom Gilbert lost the puck to Nystrom behind the Edmonton net. Nystrom chipped the disc
in front of the net to Bouchard, who beat Khabibulin with a nice move for his third goal of the season.
After two minutes, Brunette connected on a power-play to make it 4-0 game, as he knocked in a rebound for his 12th goal of the year.
Finally, Edmonton opened its scoring with a lone goal with 3 ½ minutes left in the third period. Paajarvi received a pass in the slot and rifled a shot at the top corner of the net, spoiling
Khudobin's bid for a second straight shutout.
“I have a lot of confidence right now,” Khudobin said. “It’s a really good feeling to win games like that. The guys are playing very well in front of me and helping me a lot. I don’t really
care that much about the shutout. The W is better for me.”
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