SUNRISE, Fla. — Carson Soucy scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period to lift the Minnesota Wild to a 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers on Tuesday night.
Luke Kunin, Mats Zuccarello and Jason Zucker also scored as the Wild won their fourth straight game and earned a point for the 10th straight game (7-0-3). Kaapo Kahkonen stopped 44 shots in his second NHL start.
Aleksander Barkov and Jonathan Huberdeau scored for the Panthers, who have lost four of their past five games. Chris Driedger made 22 saves in his second straight start.
Soucy broke a 2-2 tie after he backhanded the puck between Driedger’s pads at 4:49 of the final period. Kunin added an empty-netter with 1:01 left.
Trailing 2-0, the Wild closed within one when Zucker grabbed a loose puck, moved past defenceman Mike Hoffman and skated in on a breakaway, and backhanded the puck high into the net with 10:34 left in the second.
Zuccarello tied it 2-all when his shot from the right circle went between Driedger’s pads with 7:04 left in the middle period.
Barkov gave the Panthers a 1-0 lead on his power-play goal midway through the first as his shot from the left circle beat Kahkonen on the stick side.
Huberdeau doubled the Panthers’ lead when he fired a shot past Kahkonen with 5:34 left in the opening period.
NOTES
Panthers C Jayce Hawryluk missed his 14th straight game. … Wild D Jared Spurgeon left the game in the first period with an upper-body injury and did not return. … D Greg Pateryn, who had surgery Oct. 1, was assigned to AHL Iowa on Monday for a conditioning assignment.
UP NEXT
Wild: At Tampa Bay on Thursday night.
Panthers: Host Columbus on Saturday.
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Paul Gereffi, The Associated Press
