Ryan Hartman scored a long range wrist shot to put the Wild up 5-4 12:55 into the second period and what ensued was chaos.
Hartman skating to celebrate the goal accidentally bumped into Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington. The St. Louis goalie took exception to the bump and leveled a punch with his blocker at the head of the Wild goal scorer.
That punch set off a mass scrum that nearly led to a goalie fight as Minnesota’s Marc-Andre Fluery left his crease, took off his helmet and gloves and was gearing up for a fight until the linesmen stepped in and prevented it, which, fittingly, was about to happen on Ric Flair Night at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.
LINESMAN STOPPED A GOALIE FIGHT
Hartman trips over Binnington after scoring, Binnington goes after Hartman in the celebration and scrum ensues, Fleury skates down to challenge Binnington pic.twitter.com/poZGDi8u7y— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) March 16, 2023
“It would have been fun,” Fleury said, per The Athletic. “The crowd was up on their feet. I never had a fight in my career, so it would have been pretty cool. Too bad.”
Binnington was assessed a match penalty and was ejected from the game. Fluery got a two minute minor for leaving his crease.
Hartman’s goal was the Wild’s fourth of the period. Minnesota scored three goals in a span of 1 minute, 58 seconds earlier in the period to take the lead after being down 3-1, having allowed a pair of power-play goals in the first period.
Minny comes all the way back to take the lead đź‘€ pic.twitter.com/zC5zL7Anbe
— NHLonTNT (@NHL_On_TNT) March 16, 2023
Minnesota’s 8-5 win keeps them within a point of Dallas for first in the Central and four points ahead of Colorado. The win also extended Minnesota’s points streak to 14 games, setting a new franchise record. They’re 11-0-3 in that span.
The Wild had seven different players score goals while Pavel Buchnevich’s hat trick fueled St. Lous.
Minnesota returns home to face the Boston Bruins at 1 p.m. Saturday.
