FINAL: Wild 4 - Golden Knights 2

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- The Minnesota Wild scored three goals in the first period en route to a 4-2 win against the Vegas Golden Knights at Grand Casino Arena on Monday.

Matt Boldy, Maxim Shabanov, Danila Yurov and Joel Eriksson Ek scored for the Wild, Quinn Hughes tallied two assists and Jesper Wallstedt made 21 saves as the Wild (4-1-1) improved to 2-0-0 at home this season.

Scoring was bookended with the Wild’s top line of Boldy, Kirill Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek. 

“After the Florida (Panthers) game (4-1 Minnesota win on Saturday), it’s now two back-to-back games where they played really well,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “I think they’re making very good decisions with the puck. All three of them are extremely tenacious and hardworking.”

Rasmus Andersson and William Karlsson scored, and Carter Hart made 24 saves for the Golden Knights (5-2-0), which had won their past four games.

Boldy gave the Wild a 1-0 lead at 11:50 of the first period. He got his own rebound when his initial shot hit off a Vegas defender in the slot. Hughes assisted on the play to extend his season-opening point streak to six games,  which is tied for the sixth longest such streak by an American defenseman in NHL history and lengthiest among that list since John-Michael Liles in 2010-11 (nine games).

Shabanov scored a power-play goal, shooting through traffic from the top of the right circle, to make it 2-0 Wild at 14:32.

Yurov gave the Wild a 3-0 lead at 16:57. Bobby Brink fed Yurov, who was left alone on the backdoor, for his fourth helper of the season. Rieger Lorenz, Minnesota's second-round pick (No. 56) in the 2022 NHL Draft, had the secondary assist for his first career point in his second NHL game.

“I felt a little bit jittery in the first two shifts there,” Lorenz said. “When that loose puck’s there, that’s my job as a forechecker, to go get it. And I was lucky that Bobby made an unbelievable play.”

Andersson put Vegas on the board 3-1 at 2:37 of the second period with a slap shot from the point.

Karlsson cut it to 3-2 at 9:25. He and Brett Howden broke into the offensive zone on a 2-on-1 play and Karlsson snapped it past Wallstedt from the high slot.

Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb said he liked the team’s first 10 minutes and he felt they still had a chance to tie the game in the third period. 

“We can’t go down three against a team like that,” McNabb said. “But we’ve got to do a better job managing momentum shifts and taking care of the puck at the right times.”

Eriksson Ek added an empty-netter for the 4-2 final with 1:22 remaining.

The Golden Knights power play came up empty, including two chances in the third period. Coach Ryan Craig said his team had its looks with the man-advantage against a pressuring Wild penalty kill. 

“They (the Wild) have good sticks on it,” Craig said. “They created a few scrums tonight where they killed some clock as well. And when we found opportunity, Wallstedt was there.” 

Wild forward Nico Sturm sustained an upper-body injury with 2:14 left to play in the first period and did not return. He took a puck up high on a Jared Spurgeon shot through traffic. Sturm left the ice slowly with the help of a trainer and teammate. Hynes didn’t have a further update on Sturm postgame but confirmed he was taken to the hospital. 

“I think anytime they get those it’s precautionary and the smart thing to do, especially after what happened to Brock (Faber),” Hynes said. 

Faber sustained a skull fracture and underwent surgery after taking a puck to the head in the Wild's 2-1 preseason loss against the Dallas Stars on Sept. 25. Sturm’s incident on Monday was all too familiar, with the crowd seemingly recognizing that as well. 

“Actually, the rink was like dead silent when that went on,” Hynes said.

Wild teammates were concerned about a similar injury, too. 

“Very, very scary,” Wallstedt said. “Obviously, you get flashbacks to the preseason game when that happened to Brock. Hopefully, it’s not like that, but obviously very, very hard to see.”  

NOTES: Hughes’ six-game point streak to start a season is tied for second-longest in Wild franchise history. Andrew Brunette has the current record with seven straight games from Oct. 3, 2009-Oct. 17, 2009. … Shabanov’s goal was the first power-play goal of his career. … The Wild went 5-for-5 on the penalty kill to improve to 21-for-22 on the season and ended the game leading the League in power-play percentage (41.2 percent) and penalty-kill percentage (95.5 percent). … The Wild have scored at least one power-play goal in each of their six games this season, tying a franchise record (2010-11). … Vegas forward Mitch Marner recorded his 60th assist with the Golden Knights to become the fastest player to reach the mark with the franchise.