It wasn’t a thing of beauty but the Minnesota Wild earned its first win of the season by leaving Ottawa with a 2-0 victory over the Senators.
The Monday afternoon game was played in front of an announced crowd of 11,500 fans (no way there were actually that many people there), who saw zero goals through two-plus periods before Victor Rask grabbed a loose puck and fired top shelf to beat Craig Anderson for a 1-0 lead midway through the third period.
“Just a broken play,” said Rask in a postgame interview with FOX Sports North. “Tried to put it short side.”
Minnesota locked in defensively and killed off three penalties in the third period to preserve the victory, which was aided by Zach Parise’s empty-net goal with 2:19 left in the game.
The win snaps Minnesota’s four-game losing streak to start the season.
Alex Stalock earned the win in goal, making 26 saves for his first shutout of the season. He started in place of Devan Dubnyk, who got the day off after losing the first four games and posting an ugly 4.56 goals-against average and a very mediocre .862 save percentage.
Up next: Wild at Toronto, Tuesday at 6 p.m.
