The Minnesota Wild sure as heck know how to start on time these days. Playing the first of a back-to-back tonight against the Buffalo Sabres, they’ve netted twice in the first eight minutes of the game.
It marks a bit of a trend for the Minnesota Wild of late, with the team also opening the scoring early-on with two in less than eight minutes against the Vancouver Canucks in their previous game.
Whatever head coach, Bruce Boudreau is saying in the pre-game chat is clearly working as the team looks to shake their opposition off early-on.
To do so in the first of a back-to-back is vital too, as a comfortable lead means Boudreau has a little more freedom to roll his fourth line at will, rather than shelter it.
Opening the scoring was Zach Parise, who now sits alone on the NHL all-time list of goals scored by a Minnesota-born player, this unassisted rifle past Linus Ullmark marking his 341st goal:
ZP11 whistling one past Linus Ullmark. pic.twitter.com/IvhAJGpVgQ
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) November 17, 2018
The second goal on the game was a screamer of a slap-shot from the point by one Matthew Dumba:
Big fans of @Matt_Dumba's shot on the power play. #BUFvsMIN pic.twitter.com/m3H7lhENC1
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) November 17, 2018
The art of a well-placed slap-shot may be something not as common among today’s players, but Dumba seems to know how to play that shot!
Time and again, we’ve seen that exact play on the power-play resulting in a Minnesota Wild goal. It’s a wonder teams haven’t found a way to defend it yet! More importantly, scoring once again is being shared around.
Buffalo managed to pull a goal back before the end of the first period though the Minnesota Wild have looked quite dominant, putting 18 shots on Ullmark in the Sabres’ net.
By comparison, Jack Eichel, Jeff Skinner and company have put just nine shots on Devan Dubnyk in the Wild net.
So far, so good for the Minnesota Wild; hopefully they can maintain their hot start.