While the Minnesota Wild were defeating the Montreal Canadiens, they had constant updates right in front of them on their progress elsewhere in their bid for a berth into the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Mikael Granlund had his first NHL two-goal game and Devan Dubnyk made 30 saves to give Minnesota a 4-1 win against Montreal at Bell Centre on Saturday.
Nino Niederreiter scored an unassisted goal and Erik Haula scored into an empty net with 1:39 remaining for Minnesota, which ended a two-game losing streak in the first of three road games against Eastern Conference teams. The Wild tied the Colorado Avalanche with 74 points for the second wild card into the playoffs from the Western Conference. Minnesota has played one less game than Colorado, which lost 3-2 at the Winnipeg Jets Saturday. Dubnyk said that he couldn't help but see the out-of-town scores on the scoreboard in front of him that rings around the arena between section levels.
Mark Barberio scored and Mike Condon made 18 saves for Montreal, which was missing 11 players due to injury or illness, including P.K. Subban, who is day-to-day because of a neck injury he sustained Thursday. Condon made a costly mistake after he came well out of his net to play the puck on the play that led to the opening goal at 10:52 of the first period. Niederreiter intercepted Condon's pass to Canadiens left wing Jacob De La Rose on the left boards in the neutral zone at the blue line. And that's what happened as Niederreiter then shot into the net before the Montreal goalie could scramble back to his crease for his 15th goal of the season.
Barberio, who took Subban's spot to the right of defenseman Andrei Markov, tied the game at 1-1 with his second goal of the season at 12:13 of the first.
Matt Dumba carried the puck down the left side of the Canadiens' zone to the corner before putting a backhand pass through the goalmouth to set up Granlund's first goal at 13:20 of the first. Granlund snapped a shot past Condon into the right side of the net to set a new career-high with his ninth goal of the season to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead.
Granlund increased the lead to 3-1 at 11:49 of the second when he was left uncovered on the right side late during Minnesota's second power play. Condon put his glove over the puck after making a save on Marco Scandella's shot from the left point, but Thomas Vanek poked it free to Granlund, who fired into an open right side for his 10th goal of the season. Jason Pominville missed his second consecutive game because of a lower-body injury.
Canadiens forward Lars Eller had the flu and forward Stefan Matteau missed the game because of a lower-body injury he sustained Thursday. Defenseman Darren Dietz made his NHL debut for Montreal.
Wild Quotes
Mikael Granlund: "It was nice, for sure, it's always nice to score goals, but I think those two points we got tonight, that's the most important thing and that's what we need to keep doing if we want to get to the playoffs."Devan Dubnyk: "I heard. I wasn't watching at all during the game. No, you have a peek up during the TV timeouts and stuff, and all obviously we can worry about is winning but to have that happen we're going to need some of that too down the stretch so that's nice to see."
"They had them continuously running on the thing. I maybe saw it once or eight times."
Nino Niederreiter: "I read it pretty well and I think I got lucky with that too, and then you just have to think quick and try to put it in."
John Torchetti: "Good movement, really good movement. (Dumba) got a little bit wedged on the wall there but he stayed nice and poised there, kept under control with the puck and kept the possession, and we had good movement off of that."
Other Results
NY Islanders @ Boston 1-3
Carolina @ Buffalo 2-3 OT
NY Rangers @ Detroit 2-3 OT
Toronto @ Ottawa 0-4
Philadelphia @ Florida 4-5 SO
Nashville @ Vancouver 2-4
Phoenix @ Edmonton 4-0
New Jersey @ Los Angeles 2-1 OT
No comments:
Post a Comment