The best-of-seven playoff series between the Minnesota Wild and Vegas Golden Knights is even at one game apiece after Vegas beat the Wild 3-1 Tuesday night.
After Minnesota’s 1-0 win in Game 1, the goaltenders – Cam Talbot of the Wild and Marc-Andre Fleury of the Golden Knights – were again magnificent, with neither allowing a puck past them until Matt Dumba sniped a shot from the right point over the shoulder of Fleury midway through the second period.
But Minnesota’s 1-0 lead was gone 18 seconds later when Jonathan Marchessault tied it 1-1 at 12:25 of the period.
Vegas took a 2-1 lead about five minutes later when Alex Tuch skated in front of the goal and received a quick pass from the side of the net from Mattias Janmark.
Tuch, the former Wild prospect, scored again on a power play with 52 seconds left in the third period to seal the victory for Vegas.
Talbot was 25 saves following his 42-save shutout in Game 1, but Fleury was better on Tuesday night. The veteran goalie stopped 17 shots when the Wild dominated the pace of play and puck possession in the first period, and he has stopped 63 of 65 shots on goal through two games.
“I don’t know what the word would be … not frustrated, [but] you’re getting those looks, and a great goaltender is making those saves,” said Wild coach Dean Evason. “You just have to keep doing that and keep doing that and keep doing that. And then maybe you get a break.”
Wild forward Nick Bonino, who played with Fleury in Pittsburgh, added: “We’re gonna need to score more than one a night to beat this team in a seven-game series. They’re dangerous offensively and we know that even with our great goaltending, they’re probably gonna score some goals and we need to get at [Fleury] here and get some on him.”
Game 3 of the series is in St. Paul Thursday at 8:30 p.m.
