The Minnesota Wild wrecked the Florida Panthers 5-1 at Amerant Bank Arena on Tuesday night. The Panthers concluded a three-game homestand against Western Conference opponents. The Wild have not trailed once in six games so far this season.
The Cats contest had been moved forward to a rare 6:30 p.m. weekday start. The reason is that the National Hockey League will have one of their 16 games tonight begin every 15 minutes. Florida will have their next home contest in Sunrise on November 7.
Mineesota(4-0-2) made it 1-0 at the 8:40 mark of the first period. Jake Middleton cycled the puck from the left corner to Kirill Kaprizov on the right wing. He angled a pass and Marco Rossi tapped it in from the left of the crease by Sergei Bobrovsky for his third goal this year.
The Wild increased it to 2-0 just 22 seconds later. Jonas Bodin sent a lead pass from his won blue line. Matt Boldy carried the puck down the left side to the left corner. He centered it and Marcus Johansson one-timed a slap shot from the left circle for his first tally of the campaign.
In the second period, Minnesota expanded it to a three-goal lead at 2:20 with the man advantage. Joel Eriksson-Ek side a pass from the right wing. Mats Zuccarello shot the puck from the right points and Boldy deflected it in from the low slot for his third goal of the season.
Florida(4-3-1) cut it to 3-1 with 8:41 remaining in the second. Matthew Tkachuk tapped the puck at the Wild blue line. Carter Verhaeghe made a cross-ice pass from the low left circle and it went off the right skate of Sam Bennett by Filip Gustavsson into the cage for his fifth goal this season. Tkachuk got his 200th point in a Panthers uniform on that play. He accomplished it in his 161st game, which is one game short of the franchise record set by Pavel Bure.
The Wild scored and made it 4-1 with 6:02 to go. Zuccarello connected a pass from the right corner. Kiprizov faked a shot from the crease and skated with the puck around the net. He passed from the end wall and Zuccarello placed in a forehand shot from the right circle into an unoccupied cage.
It became a four-goal lead for Minnesota with 3:55 left in the period. Middleton relayed a pass from the neutral zone and Eriksson-Ek snapped a shot from the left-circle dot for his second goal in 2024-25.
No comments:
Post a Comment