Wild shut out Canucks in Game 1 of Cup Qualifiers

Alex Stalock made 28 saves for the Minnesota Wild to earn his first NHL postseason win, 3-0 against the Vancouver Canucks in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Qualifiers at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Sunday.

It was the fifth NHL postseason game for Stalock, whose only other start was April 28, 2014, with the San Jose Sharks.

"Most important game of the season to date," Stalock said. "Important to win right now. I don't think obviously a shutout, when you give up a goal or a few goals or whatever it may be, when you come out with the win, you move up in the series. I think we're happy with that as a group."

WATCH: [All Wild vs. Canucks highlights]

Defenseman Jared Spurgeon scored two goals and had an assist, and Eric Staal had two assists for the Wild, the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference.

"Obviously, we were lucky they were going in today for myself, but next game, it's going to be someone else," said Spurgeon, an Edmonton native who scored his only NHL hat trick at the Edmonton Oilers on Feb. 21.

Jacob Markstrom made 27 saves for the Canucks, the No. 7 seed in the West, in his first NHL postseason game.

"Well, we lost, so that's not the start we wanted," Markstrom said. "And me personally, not the start as well -- letting in those two goals. You want them back. Their goalie didn't do any mistakes tonight, so we lost the game. Me personally, I got to come back and play better and more consistent."

Game 2 of the best-of-5 series is in Edmonton, the Western Conference hub city, on Tuesday (10:45 p.m. ET; USA, NHL.TV, SN, FS-N, FS-WI). The series winner advances to the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

There hasn't been a best-of-5 series in the NHL since 1986. The League used them for the preliminary round of the playoffs from 1980-86, and the team that won Game 1 went on to win the series 87.5 percent of the time (49 of 56).

Kevin Fiala gave the Wild a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal at 2:50 of the first period. He scored 26 points (14 goals, 12 assists) in the last 19 games before the season was paused March 12 due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus.

"Happy to be back, great to be back," Fiala said. "The team did an unbelievable job today to stay disciplined, to stay with each other, to support each other. We won as a team."

Spurgeon made it 2-0 with a power-play goal at 10:24 of the second. He scored into an empty net with 47 seconds remaining for the 3-0 final.

"They played good defense today," said Canucks forward Elias Pettersson, who was limited to two shots on goal in 19:38. "They're an older team, so they have experience. I think it was what I expected. High-intense game, a lot of hits and both teams were battling. Both teams want to win. Game 1 to Minnesota. Looking forward to Game 2."

Stalock made 14 saves in the first period and 10 in the second.

"His compete is as high as anybody's," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "That's all we've seen from this whole tournament. To have a guy in there that's going to battle and compete like he does. We felt very comfortable and we really liked his game."

Minnesota was 2-for-4 on the power-play. Vancouver, which was called for six minor penalties, was 0-for-1.

"I thought we did some good things to draw some penalties tonight," Canucks captain Bo Horvat said. "Just waiting to get that right call. We're going to continue to keep working through it and find ways to get some calls in our favor. It's a long series. Hopefully we can draw some more penalties in Game 2.

Vancouver's top six forwards -- Horvat, Pettersson, Brock Boeser, J.T. Miller, Tanner Pearson and Tyler Toffoli -- combined for five shots on goal and had eight shot attempts blocked.

"We need those guys to produce more," Canucks coach Travis Green said. "It's no secret that those two lines -- we'd like to get some production out of them. But sometimes you got to win a game 1-0, too."

NHL.com staff writer Pete Jensen contributed to this report