Wild: Newcomers chip in for first victory

Manny Fernandez made his first return to Minnesota since being traded to the Boston Bruins last year, and the often-morose goaltender coughed up souvenir pucks like he was sponsoring his own Wild giveaway.

Every Wild player making his debut played a role in the offense as the Wild followed its Northwest Division championship banner-raising with a 4-3 season-opening victory on Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center.

“Our team has more depth offensively,” said center Eric Belanger, who began his second season with the Wild by brushing off two high-sticks to the melon and notching his sixth two-goal game. “I think the scoring is going to be a lot more spread out through our lines. Even our defensemen were joining the attack a lot more.”

Newcomers Marc-Andre Bergeron and Antti Miettinen scored goals as the Wild improved to 7-0-1 in home openers. Also making their debuts were rookie Colton Gillies and veteran Owen Nolan. Gillies, 19, recorded his first NHL point with an assist. He’s only 807 points behind Nolan, 36, who also had an assist.

“Did you hear me from the ice? Oh man, I was definitely screaming,” Gillies said of his part in Belanger’s momentum-turning, first-period-tying goal.

Andrew Brunette, wearing a Wild uniform for the first time since April 4, 2004, had an assist, and Pierre-Marc Bouchard and Mikko Koivu each had two.

Maybe the best sign? Marian Gaborik didn’t even have a point.

“It’s going to be different guys chipping in every night,” Belanger said.

Niklas Backstrom, playing his 100th NHL game, rebounded from a shaky start by both himself and the Wild to make 34 saves.

A slow start was predictable, considering the Wild had six days off after its final exhibition game. Not to mention, the Wild stood through the banner-raising.

“You just try to fight through that beginning and try to feel the puck,” Backstrom said. “Ten minutes standing there is a long time. It was a great ceremony, but it’s good it didn’t cost us the game.”

A slow finish was not expected. The Wild was outshot 12-5 in the third and Marc Savard scored twice for the Bruins to make for a tense ending.

“You know how excited I was before the game? Now I need another game,” Wild coach Jacques Lemaire said. “I have to see more. I like the potential that we have. Now we’ve got to play together.”

The Wild got into an early pickle when Brent Burns clipped former Gophers forward Phil Kessel for a double minor. The Wild killed the power plays behind Backstrom’s six saves, but Kessel scored soon after.

But late in the period, Burns drew a holding penalty. On the power play, Gillies fed Belanger along the goal line. Belanger looked like he was going to pass, so Fernandez cheated toward the slot. Belanger whipped a shot from the bad angle to tie the score 1-1 with 1 minute, 28 seconds left.

The Wild then stormed out for a three-goal second.

On a power play after Belanger was high-sticked a second time, Bergeron blasted a shot from the point to become the first Wild defenseman to score in his Wild debut since Kurtis Foster did it Nov. 19, 2005.

The goal made up for early defensive struggles by Bergeron. Lemaire joked that Bergeron will be exciting both offensively and defensively.

“He was a little tight, especially in the first period,” Lemaire said. “We started to tell him, ‘You’ve got a good shot, you’ve got to use that shot.’ ”

Later, Miettinen and Belanger scored 2:09 apart. Brunette’s feed to a driving Miettinen was a beauty.

“Bruno’s a really good player. He can make that more difficult pass to the open guy,” Miettinen said.