The best-of-five playoff qualifying series between the Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks is even at one game apiece after Vancouver beat the Wild 4-3 Tuesday night in the NHL bubble in Edmonton.
From the get-go, the Wild found itself clawing its way back. Tanner Pearson scored on the first shot of the game just 24 seconds into the opening period to give Vancouver a 1-0 lead, and although Minnesota escaped the first period tied 1-1 thanks to a shorthanded goal by Luke Kunin, penalties prevented Minnesota from gaining any momentum.
Minnesota took seven penalties, most of them avoidable, according to head coach Dean Evason.
“Way too many penalties by us and our power play wasn’t very good,” said Evason, via Wild.com. “They did a real good job, but clearly we have to stay out of the penalty box. On their power play, they had a lot of really good touches tonight, a lot of zone time. [It] took a lot out of our group.”
The good news is that the Wild limited Vancouver to just one power-play goal. But that goal by Brock Boeser gave the Canucks a 4-1 lead midway through the third period.
The final score of 4-3 looks closer than the game really was.as Kevin Fiala scored a pair of goals in the final two and a half minutes with goalie Alex Stalock on the bench to give the Wild an extra attacker.
Game 3 of the best-of-five series is Thursday at 1:30 p.m.
