Series heads back to Minnesota tied, but Wild likes where it's game is at

LAS VEGAS -- Look, the Wild would love to be coming back to St. Paul for Game 3 of it's best-of-7 series against the Vegas Golden Knights with a 2-zip lead.
It'll settle for a split in Sin City, as the Wild wrestled home-ice advantage in this series away from the Golden Knights, but it's hard to imagine anything else it could have done in Game 2 on Tuesday night to win the hockey game.
Minnesota peppered Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury with grade-A chance after grade-A chance, blocked a bunch of shots and once again, played a tough, physical brand of hockey that appeared to have the second-seeded Knights on their heels much of the night.

But it was Fleury who was the difference, especially early, as Vegas won 3-1 to even the series at 1-1 as it shifts east to Minnesota for the next two contests.
"We don't really want moral victories, but tonight, we got better," said Wild forward Nick Bonino. "We played better. Just a couple little breakdowns there and they capitalized. But for the most part, we came on the road, we split, we'll go home now and learn a little bit from the first two and get ready to go."
Much like Cam Talbot in Game 1, Fleury withstood a barrage of shots in the opening 20 and somehow kept the game scoreless.
Even when he finally surrendered a goal 12 minutes into the second period, his teammates came back and tied the game with their first goal of the series just 18 seconds later.
Alex Tuch would score his first of two goals five minutes after that before the Wild made one final push in the third that would come up just a goal short.
With Talbot pulled for the extra attacker, Kirill Kaprizov was called for a trip, and Vegas scored on the ensuing power play and under a minute remaining in regulation to ice the victory.
But it all came back to Fleury, who victimized Ryan Hartman repeatedly in Game 1, and on this night, Kevin Fiala, who recorded eight shots on goal in the game - several of them grade-A chances from prime scoring areas.

"I don't know what the word would be ... not frustrated, [but] you're getting those looks, and a great goaltender is making those saves," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "You just have to keep doing that and keep doing that and keep doing that. And then maybe you get a break."
During the regular season, Fiala had at least five shots on goal 16 times. In those games, he scored 11 goals and had five assists.
Tuesday, he had goose eggs despite a brilliant effort and one of his most impactful, noticeable performances of the season.

"Frustrated, sure, that nothing went in. But it's one game," Fiala said. "I feel comfortable that my shots are going to go in, so I'll keep on going at it. What can I do? What can we do? Just keep pushing. I feel tonight was his night again, just keep pushing and pushing and I feel comfortable for the whole team that we are gonna score goals. I don't think we have to change anything."
So just how do the Wild go about beating Fleury?
"You just do what we're doing," said Bonino, Fleury's teammate in Pittsburgh during the Pens' Stanley Cup runs in 2016 and 2017. "I can give you some cliches about making it harder for him to see and getting the rebounds up, but we're having some pretty good grade-As here, we're making him move side to side, we've had a lot of one-on-one chances with him and he's made some big saves, so as the series goes on, hopefully those go in for us.
"We're gonna need to score more than one a night to beat this team in a seven-game series. They're dangerous offensively and we know that even with our great goaltending, they're probably gonna score some goals and we need to get at Flower here and get some on him."

Matt Dumba was outstanding too, scoring the Wild's only goal 12 minutes into the second period, giving Minnesota a brief 1-0 lead.
Dumba was also credited with eight blocked shots (a franchise playoff record) and four shots on goal.
"We're not proving anything to ourselves. We know the level that we can play at," Dumba said. "I think it's more you guys, the media, putting us as underdogs. But you're gonna see a totally different team, even, at home. We're a different beast."
With 10 games in the books between the clubs now in the books, counting regular and postseason, seven have been decided by exactly one goal. Another was a one-goal game until the final six seconds of regulation and Tuesday's was a one-goal contest until the final minute of regulation.
If the games remain tight, and clearly there's no reason to believe they won't considering how evenly matched these clubs appear to be, that's just fine with the Wild.
"I think this type of hockey suits us well," said Wild defenseman Ryan Suter. "I think we're comfortable playing in those tight games, getting pucks deep and playing that low, kind of grind-it-out style."
Nothing through two games has surprised Evason, who said he expected each game of this series to be decided in tight quarters.
The Wild just hopes it can solve Fleury a time or two more per game and hopefully gain a bit of breathing room as the series shifts to friendlier ice at Xcel Energy Center.
"Yeah, 100 percent, we didn't expect one team to blow the other team out," Evason said. "The chances, at least the first game, were very equal, I assume they're equal again in Game 2]. The games are going to be like this. It's awesome, it's great hockey to watch, stressful for coaches to watch behind the bench, but fun as well."
**Related:**
[Postgame Hat Trick: Golden Knights 3, Wild 1