Wild defeats Canucks 3-0 in opener of best-of-five series
Wild #Wild
EDMONTON, ALBERTA — The Wild kept its goaltending decision under wraps in the lead-up to its qualifying matchup, but the answer was always Alex Stalock.
Not only was he the unequivocal starter when the coronavirus pandemic interrupted the season in March, but he was one of the reasons why the Wild was even in contention at that point — a station in the standings that helped the team get invited to this unconventional and unprecedented 24-team tournament return by the NHL.
Stalock deserved to finish the job he started.
And the Wild was rewarded when it gave him that chance.
In just his second career playoff start, Stalock was superb — blanking the Canucks 3-0 Sunday night in Game 1 at Rogers Place with 28 saves to secure a 1-0 lead for the Wild in the best-of-five showdown.
Game 2 is Tuesday at 9:45 p.m. Central Time.
But Stalock wasn’t the only architect behind the Wild’s second-half surge who picked up where he left off.
Winger Kevin Fiala opened the scoring and defenseman Jared Spurgeon provided the breathing room with a pair of goal. Two of the Wild’s tallies came on the power play, a special teams battle dominated by the Wild since Vancouver was denied on its lone power play late in the third period.
That, however, wasn’t the only area the Wild shined.
Players were relentless on pucks, they finished their checks and they hustled to clog up any bit of space Vancouver tried to exploit. The front of the Wild’s net was almost impenetrable at times and even when the team’s structure did start to loosen, Stalock was there with the save.
This commitment by the Wild was visible from the drop of the puck.
So was its physical edge.
Soon after the national anthems, which defenseman Matt Dumba raised a fist for from the Wild’s bench like he said he would after Saturday becoming the first NHLer to kneel during the U.S. anthem, hooting and hollering erupted from both benches when the Wild’s Marcus Foligno and the Canucks’ Micheal Ferland fought after a faceoff just 1 minute, 19 seconds into the first period.
The dust-up immediately brought an intensity and nastiness to the game, an urgency that compensated for the mellow vibe of the arena without fans.
Another round of cheers, this time by the Wild, came at 2:50 when Fiala’s one-timer on the power play trickled through Vancouver goalie Jacob Markstrom. Fiala’s first career playoff goal with the Wild, which was set up by Spurgeon after he funneled a faceoff win by center Eric Staal to the slot where Fiala was waiting, was Fiala’s eight goal in his last nine games played overall.
Amid constant chatter, like “That a boy, Al,” the Wild carted that lead into the second period.
The Canucks, after being on their heels for the start of the first, started to generate more offensive-zone time but the Wild withstood the pressure — specifically Stalock.
During one of Vancouver’s best sequences, Stalock kicked out a pad on Brandon Sutter and then threw up a glove save on Quinn Hughes through traffic.
What helped the Wild wrestle momentum back was a strong cycling shift by the team’s third line of Alex Galchenyuk, Mats Zuccarello and Foligno. Seconds later, defenseman Carson Soucy was slashed to the ice and the Wild power play once again took advantage.
This time, Spurgeon pinched after accepting a Staal pass and slid a shot five-hole on Markstrom at 10:24. Markstrom ended up with 28 saves.
Staal’s two-assist effort was his 10th career multi-point playoff game.
Overall, the power play finished 2-for-4 and, ultimately, that was more than enough of a cushion for Stalock; Spurgeon added an empty-net goal with 47 seconds remaining — this after he led NHL defensemen in the regular season in goals since Jan.16 with nine.
He’s also the only Wild defenseman in franchise history to record two points on the power play in a playoff game.
As for Stalock, dating back to the regular season, he’s 10-3-1 over his last 14 games and has stopped 379 of 408 shots — a .929 save percentage.
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