Minnesota Wild Fall in Game Two, Fleury and Tuch Spark Comeback

Wild head coach Dean Evason stressed a better start in game two for the Wild and the boys listened.

We knew the Golden Knights would come out with a little pent-up anger after being shut out at home in Game 1. But the boys in green overmatched Vegas’s energy in period one. Same story different day though, as Marc-Andre Fleury stood on his head turning away 19 first-period shots and at least seven grade-A scoring chances.

I don’t joke when I say it should’ve been 5-0 Wild after the first as Minnesota continued to put everything they had at Vegas’ net but Fleury was there to turn away everything.

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It wasn’t until the second period we saw a change in the score, as an impressive shift by the Greenway-Ek-Foligno line squirted the puck from the left flank to the right point for a Matt Dumba blast.

Fleury never was able to get his eyes on the puck as he was screened by Marcus Foligno and Nicolas Hauge. If this is any indication for what to come, the Wild have to continue to get pressure to the net and disrupt Fleury. As we have seen so far, you aren’t going to beat the possible 2021 Vezina goaltender clean.

Fleury has stopped 63 of 65 shots in the first two games of the series for the Golden Knights.

With Minnesota maybe still celebrating their go-ahead goal, Jonathan Marchessault cracks the dam that was Cam Talbot.

It took the Knights 95 plus minutes to figure out Wild goaltender Cam Talbot, and it was a snipe from the right circle only 18 seconds after Dumba’s goal.

Only five minutes later former Wild Alex Tuch continues to be a thorn in the side of Minnesota and buries one past Talbot for his first of the night, giving Vegas a 2-1 lead.

The Wild have made it a mission to disrupt Vegas’ captain Mark Stone. Without Stone’s dynamic winger Max Pacioretty on his left, Stone has been shut down through two games.

But the same can be said about the Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov. No points through two games now for Kaprizov which could largely be because of Golden Knights coach Pete Deboer line matchups.

It will be interesting to see how Evason responds with the line matchups for Game 3 in St. Paul but I am willing to bet Evason and the Wild won’t have Kaprizov out there against the Carrier and Reaves line.

Counting regular season and postseason games, seven games have been decided by exactly one goal between the Knights and Wild.

Looking Ahead

We have seen throughout the first two games how this series is really going to pan out. Each game has been tightly contested hockey, back and forth with scoring chances.

An unreal first period by the Golden Knights and Cam Talbot in Game 1 and an unreal first period by the Wild and Marc-Andre Fleury in Game 2.

Hockey is full of mistakes and is truly a game of inches. The Wild make a couple of mistakes and turnovers and suddenly Vegas’ leads.

A couple of costly turnovers by Marcus Johansson could result in a lineup change. One that may see Zach Parise, the Wild’s all-time leading playoff scorer to be inserted in Johansson’s place.

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It will be interesting to see what Dean Evason does with the last change and maybe plugging in Parise to provide a spark.

Through the first two games, the Wild have scored a total of two goals. Both of which were net-front battles that Fleury could not track. Zach Parise has made a living and career of the so-called dirty goals. Taking cross checks to the back and redirecting pucks into the cage is something Parise does best.

Gone Puck Wild’s site expert Lake Martian was asked about plugging Parise into Thursday’s contest and responded with, “The only reason I say maybe hold off Thursday is to see how the team does with last change. They can tactically deploy Kaprizov’s line without always getting pinned against the shutdown group.”

On Vegas’ side of things, what do you do with the goaltending? Fleury has stood on his head all series and will continue to have the motivation to do so. One rough game for Fleury could result in coughing the net up to All-Star goaltender Robin Lehner.

Unfortunately for Knights fans, the Wild return home to play host to Vegas for two home games which the Wild were 19-2-2 in their last 23 at the Xcel Energy Center and 6-0-1 against the Knights at home.

Wild fans are in for a treat for the next two home games, which are games that could seriously indicate what Wild fans have to look at in the future.

3 Stars Of The Night

3rd star: (MIN) M.Dumba, 1 goal, 4 shots, & 8 blocked shots

2nd star: (VGK) A.Tuch, 2 goals (GWG)

1st star: (VGK) M.Fleury, 34 saves on 35 shots. .971 SV%

Can the Wild take advantage of home-ice advantage? Let’s know what you think. Tweet us at @FSGonePuckWild. All stats courtesy of NHL.com

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