Dead in the water and down a man after a holding penalty on Mikael Granlund with 1:17 left in regulation, the Wild did the unexpected by tying the game and winning 4-3 in overtime.
Minnesota pulled goalie Devan Dubnyk and with under 40 seconds to go and they applied pressure with Zach Parise forcing the puck deep into Chicago’s zone, firing a centering pass to Eric Staal whose blistering wrister was blocked. Staal kept the puck alive behind the net and got it back on the stick of Parise, who again sent it towards the net, this time finding Ryan Suter who buried it for the game-tying goal with 23.8 seconds left in the game.
“Just desperation, just trying to get to the net and help out,” said Suter, via Wild.com.
In overtime, the Wild killed off the rest of Chicago’s power play and then won on a rush by Jason Zucker, who slid the puck through Cam Ward’s legs for his second goal of the game and the Wild’s first win of the season.
“If this is how the year is going to be, I won’t have any hair at the end of it,” said Wild coach Bruce Boudreau, who is pretty much bald as is.
The Wild (1-1-1) host Carolina (3-0-1) on Saturday at 5 p.m.
