Goalies go down, and Wild beat Hurricanes 3-1 behind early scores by Niederreiter, Parise

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Nino Niederreiter and Zach Parise scored for Minnesota with the first two shots of the season against Carolina fill-in goalie Justin Peters, and the Wild beat the Hurricanes 3-1 on Thursday night despite losing their own starting goalie to injury.

Cam Ward was hurt just 4:07 into the game, an unspecified lower-body injury that forced the Hurricanes to send Peters in cold. He stopped 19 shots after settling in, but his rough start was costly.

Alexander Semin's power-play goal in the second period pulled the Hurricanes within one, but they couldn't muster any more in the final frame against Niklas Backstrom, who relieved starter Josh Harding in net.

Dany Heatley got his first goal of the season in the closing seconds, an empty-netter on a power play, to clinch the Wild's second straight win. They are 4-0-2 at home.