Pittsburgh Penguins – 3
Minnesota Wild – 1
1) ‘The Kid’ gets the scoring started
After a scoreless 1st period, Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby notched the first goal of the game with a wrist shot 4:23 into the 2nd. It was Crosby’s seventh goal of the season. He missed their last contest because of a lower body injury.
2) Busy end to the 2nd period
The final 2 minutes of the 2nd is when most of the action happened. Eric Fehr scored at 18:10 to make it 2-0 Penguins – but the Wild answered 45 seconds later, when Jason Zucker got a wrist shot past Matt Murray. It was Zucker’s ninth goal on the year, assists going to Thomas Vanek and Marco Scandella. But the one-goal game didn’t last long. Patric Hornqvist scored for the Penguins about 30 seconds later, and that was that.
3) Wild get shots in 3rd, but can’t break through
The Wild turned up the heat in the final period, putting 14 shots on goal (to Pittsburgh’s 5). But they couldn’t get through Murray, who finished with 25 saves. Devan Dubnyk had 29 saves for Minnesota. The Penguins (17-14-3) have won three of their past 10 games.
Tweet of the night
Zach Parise on tonight's 3-1 #mnwild loss to the Penguins:
"Probably the easiest game they're going to play all year."— Chad Graff (@ChadGraff) December 27, 2015
Up next
The Wild (18-10-6) are 7-5 this month. They host Detroit Monday at 7 p.m.
