Marco Rossi scores first point in NHL as Wild beat Canadiens

Marco Rossi skated toward the Wild bench on Tuesday night at Xcel Energy Center, thinking he might’ve just scored the first point of his NHL career.

Unfortunately for Rossi, he had to wait a couple of minutes to know for sure.

Montreal coach Martin St. Louis decided to challenge the play with hopes that Rossi used a high stick to control the puck before Kirill Kaprizov scored. A few minutes later, the officials ruled that Rossi kept his stick below his shoulders and the goal counted.

After waiting a lifetime for the milestone moment, Rossi could finally celebrate. What was he thinking during the review?

“I was just praying,” Rossi said with a laugh before admitting that being held scoreless was starting to weigh on him. “It was important to play the right way. I just continued like that, because I knew it was going to come sooner or later. I’m really glad to have that first point.”

That was the highlight of the night as the Wild took care of business in a rather decisive 4-1 win over the Canadiens.

Marc-Andre Fleury made 34 saves in the win, continuing his stellar play between the pipes. That helped Fleury improve to a perfect 4-0-0 over the past week and a half. He has a 1.72 goals against average and a .940 save percentage in that span.

“The confidence has been going alright,” Fleury said with a smile. “I felt good tonight.”

That was clear from the initial drop of the puck. While looked every bit like a team returning from a 10-day road trip, Fleury stepped up big time in the first period, making 15 saves in the first period alone to keep the Canadiens off the scoreboard.

“We warned the group about the whole coming back from a road trip,” coach Dean Evason said. “We maybe gave up a few up early, and he was there to bail us out. But I thought our energy was good to start the game.”

Eventually, the Wild found their legs, and they dominated the Canadiens for the remainder of the game. It started to turn early in the second period when Mason Shaw scored to make it 1-0, then continued a couple of minutes later when Kirill Kaprizov delivered a highlight-reel deflection to stretch the lead to 2-0.

“He’s so skilled and so talented, and he still goes to the gritty spots,” Fleury said of Kaprizov. “He goes to the front of the net and gets cross checked and pushed and stuff. He battles and gets those big goals in front. That’s something I really love about him.”

With the Wild in complete control at that point, Rossi created a scoring chance late in the second period, batting a puck out of midair before Kaprizov hammered it home to make it 3-0.  As soon as the officials ruled it a good goal, Rossi took a seat on the bench, and his teammates celebrated around him.

“It’s really nice to be around such a good group here,” Rossi said. “This is one of the best teams I’ve ever been on.”

Though it looked like Fleury was on his way to a shutout, Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki cut the deficit to 3-1 late in the third period. A few minutes later, Matt Boldy finalized the score at 4-1 with an empty-net goal. Connor Dewar got the assist after a tremendous effort to beat out a potential icing.

As for Rossi, the hope amongst the Wild is that he’s able to breathe easier now that he finally has a point to his name.

“Absolutely,” Shaw said. “The whole team is very ecstatic for him. I’m sure the floodgates are going to open for  him.”

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