The Minnesota Wild and Vegas Golden Knights were both on the second game of a back-to-back when they faced each other on Sunday evening, Dec. 15. The Wild made some goaltending news before the start of the game as it was announced Jesper Wallstedt would be making his season debut and Marc-André Fleury would be his backup.
Related: Wild’s Fleury Leads Way in 4-1 Win Over Flyers
The Wild’s injury list stayed the same from the day prior except for Filip Gustavsson, who was scratched for the night due to a minor issue, according to Michael Russo of The Athletic, who posted to X before the game. The Golden Knights didn’t report any injuries before the game. The game didn’t take long to get things going and stayed close the entire time, with the Golden Knights taking the 3-2 win. This moved the Wild to 20-7-4 and the Golden Knights to 20-8-3.
Game Recap
The Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov’s scoring magic continued as it took just a minute and a half into the game for him to score the game’s first goal and was assisted by his favorite passing partner, Mats Zuccarello. The Wild held strong to that lead, with Wallstedt making some good saves until just before the halfway point of the period when the Golden Knights’ Victor Olofsson took a shot from the top of the circles and beat Wallstedt on the power play. Shea Theodore and Jack Eichel assisted him, and the first would end tied 1-1.
In the second period, the scoring flipped, with the Golden Knights getting the first goal as Theodore scored with Eichel and Mark Stone assisting just six minutes into the period to give them a 2-1 lead. It would take a little over 10 minutes for the Wild to answer, but they did as Kaprizov tallied his second of the night to tie it 2-2 with Brock Faber and Zuccarello assisting, and the period would end 2-2.
The third started again in the Golden Knight’s favor as Olofsson scored his second of the night and was assisted by William Karlsson and Pavel Dorofeyev to give their team a 3-2 lead early in the period. Despite some strong chances for the Wild, that lead would hold, and the Golden Knights won.
The Wild will now have a few days off before they continue their homestand on Wednesday, Dec. 18, as they host the Florida Panthers in an 8:30 central time start. The Golden Knights will also have a few days off before they take on the Vancouver Canucks at home on Thursday, Dec. 19.
