Soucy rewarded for strong game with winning goal

Carson Soucy was a lineup staple last season, playing in 55 games, scoring seven goals and posting a plus-16. His play was so stellar, he earned himself a three-year contract from the Wild last offseason.
Not bad for a first full campaign in the NHL.
So perhaps it was a bit surprising to see Soucy a healthy scratch for two games in Arizona last week. But following a two-game break from the lineup, Soucy has come back and looked terrific in two games against the Vegas Golden Knights.

He was rewarded with that effort on Wednesday with what ended up being the game-winning goal in a 4-3 win over the Knights, in what was probably Soucy's best effort of his sophomore season.

"He played such a strong game," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "He didn't play a couple games ago. We asked him to be more engaged and the last couple games he's been very engaged.
"In tonight's game he was extremely engaged. The goal's great but what he did defending, stepping up into the play, he was involved from the drop of the puck. And if he does that, he's an extremely effective player for us."
That's what Soucy did all season as a rookie last year.
The seven goals and 14 points were somewhat surprising for a guy who had never really posted much in the way of offense, even going back to junior.
Soucy's bread-and-butter has always been his defense, and using his 6-foot-5, 215-pound frame to make life difficult for opponents in their offensive zone.
And while the statistics perhaps didn't back a benching, Evason is right in that Soucy's game had become less noticeable before his scratch.
It was anything but anonymous on Wednesday.

For a second-straight game, Soucy was throwing his weight around, breaking up scoring chances, getting sticks on pucks and generally mucking things up in front of Kaapo Kahkonen.
So often, when a defenseman has a solid game like Soucy did on Wednesday, his only reward is nice feedback in the film session the next day.
Soucy got his on the scoreboard, finishing off a rush chance by scoring on a pretty one-timer off a nice feed from Nico Sturm.
The goal was the Wild's third in a span of 6 1/2 minutes, breaking open what was a 1-1 game for more than 40 minutes.
It also drove Marc-Andre Fleury from a game in which he played spectacularly, denying a handful of Wild players with dazzling glove saves to keep it knotted for the game's majority.

"It was nice. At the time, thought it was just kind of an insurance [goal], but we wanted to keep pressuring these guys," Soucy said. "We know they're talented, and they're gonna push back. And they did, so I'm just glad we kind of stayed with our game there for those minutes and kept pushing to try and get another goal."
Not long after the goal, with the Wild firmly in control, Soucy dished out a big - and clean - hit on Vegas defenseman Shea Theodore with just over six minutes remaining in the game, one that drew the ire of Knights forward Keegan Kolesar.
With the Wild up three goals at the time, Kolesar did everything he could to draw Soucy into a fight, and Soucy did everything he could to avoid a penalty.
Somehow, the officials took both for two minutes, and the teams would skate 4-on-4 for its entirety. Just 17 seconds into the 4-on-4, Vegas scored to make it 4-2. They'd score again with 2:17 left to make it 4-3, and despite Soucy's best efforts, Vegas had captured all of the momentum.

"I mean, with the 4-1 lead that late in the game, it's doesn't seem much of a point for me to [fight]," Soucy said. "But I mean, he's doing a good job sticking up for his teammates. So it's just hard. I tried to do whatever I could not take a penalty, and it kind of changed momentum there.
"But we did a good job in the end not giving up the fourth goal."
Rookie goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen ran his personal winning streak to eight games with the victory, improving to 11-4-0 on the season by making 24 saves.

The win assured Minnesota of a two-game sweep of first-place Vegas, avenging a Knights sweep of the Wild last week at T-Mobile Arena. Vegas, which came to town riding a six-game winning streak and maintaining a six-point lead over the Wild in the West Division standings, now has just a two-point edge and will limp into St. Louis for back-to-back games this weekend.
In a season with nothing but divisional games, it was a crucial turn of events for a Wild team doing everything it can to remain near the top of a jam-packed bunch at the top of the standings.
"We obviously lost the two games over there and all games are divisional games, you want to, if you lose a game or two against a team, you want to show them that you're not an easy team to play against and we're gonna fight and push back," Kahkonen said. "I think we did a great job of answering to that."
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Postgame Hat Trick: Wild 4, Golden Knights 3