Filip Gustavsson made 35 saves to collect his first career shutout and backstop the Minnesota Wild to a 3-0 victory over the host Vancouver Canucks.
Matt Boldy, Connor Dewar and Sam Steel scored for the Wild, who snapped a two-game skid. Mats Zuccarello collected two assists, but Kirill Kaprizov was held off the scoresheet and saw his point-scoring streak snapped at a franchise record 14 games.
Gustavsson wasn’t tested with as many high-danger chances as Vancouver counterpart Spencer Martin, but was very steady. His biggest stop was against Ilya Mikheyev during a scramble.
The Wild have won seven consecutive regular-season meetings.
Martin stopped 30 shots for the Canucks, who saw their modest three-game winning streak snapped and were shut out for the first time this season.
Despite playing on consecutive nights and their third game in four days, the Wild controlled play from the drop of the puck and were rewarded when Boldy opened the scoring with a power-play marker at 16:43. Zuccarello’s point shot was denied, but the rebound came to Boldy at the doorstep and he made no mistake, scoring his 10th goal of the season.
Minnesota finished the first period with a 14-4 edge in shots, but the Canucks responded in the second period and registered the first 10 shots, all in the first seven minutes, and 19 in the period.
However, Dewar’s shorthanded goal late in the second period doubled the Wild’s lead. Dewar intercepted J.T. Miller’s pass and zipped away before blasting a shot from the slot into the net for his fourth goal of the season, and third shorthanded marker.
Steel’s tally midway through the third period made it a three-goal edge. Steel gained the puck in the left circle and cut across the slot before zipping a top-corner backhand into the top shelf for his sixth goal of the season. It’s his eighth goal in seven career games against the Canucks.
Samuel Walker, a 23-year-old seventh-round Tampa Bay Lightning draft choice in 2017 who was signed via free agency by the Wild in the summer, made his NHL debut.
–Field Level Media
