EDMONTON, Alberta – They allowed an ugly goal early and their star player was hurt for a time, their power play continued to struggle and the home team’s biggest star made a few “get up out of your seat” rushes to the net. And despite all of that outrageous misfortune, the Minnesota Wild just keep finding ways to win on the road.
On a cold and snowy Thursday night in northern Alberta, they overcame an early deficit to beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-3, improving to an eye-popping 9-1-2 in road games.
Freddie Gaudreau scored a pair of goals for Minnesota — which has a crazy, high-scoring loss in Philadelphia last month as the only blemish on its road record after a dozen games away from St. Paul.
Playing in the 1,000th game of his career, Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury had 29 saves on a night when the opponents were focused on stopping Minnesota star forward Kirill Kaprizov. Kaprizov managed one assist and had to leave the game for a shift in the second period following a knee-on-knee hit by Oilers fourth-liner Drake Caggiula.
The Wild led 3-2 at the time and got a double dose of good news as Kaprizov returned to the visitors’ bench at the same moment that Gaudreau popped a shot past Edmonton goalie Stuart Skinner to give Minnesota some separation. He added another in the third for his second multi-goal game of the season.
Disaster struck for Fleury just 27 seconds into the game, when first Jake Middleton and then the goalie both fanned on a dump-in by Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl, and the puck slid between Fleury’s legs for an easy 1-0 lead for the home team.
The Wild pushed back less than two minutes later and appeared to have tied the game, but Edmonton successfully challenged the play, and replays determined that the Wild had entered the offensive zone offside.
They knotted the game for real near the midway point of the first, when Matt Boldy zipped a shot from 30 feet out with Joel Eriksson Ek providing a nice screen in front of the Oilers’ goalie. Kaprizov had the primary assist on the tying goal, giving him a franchise-record 11 consecutive road games with a point.
One shift after Foligno cleaned up his own rebound to give Minnesota its first lead early in the second, Fleury redeemed himself for the opening-shift flub with a sliding poke-check save to thwart Oilers star Connor McDavid’s solo rush to the net. But Corey Perry’s wraparound try glanced off Jared Spurgeon’s skate and over the line for a 2-2 deadlock.
Goals by Marcus Johansson and Gaudreau gave Minnesota a bit of cushion, which it needed in the final 20 minutes as Edmonton made a furious push early. With Skinner on the bench, the Oilers scored with 24.6 seconds on the clock in a classic push that came too late.
Skinner had 21 saves for Edmonton.
The Wild conclude their current three-game road trip on Saturday afternoon in Calgary.
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