MONTREAL — Brandon Duhaime was idling on the bench for almost 10 minutes, a midgame timeout precipitated by the Wild and Canadiens taking turns on the power play.
But Duhaime wasn't rusty from the break.
When he finally rejoined the action, he scored the tiebreaking goal to set the Wild up for a much-needed 3-1 win over the Canadiens on Tuesday in front of 20,867 at Bell Centre and polish off an effective two-point night for the second-year winger.
"Caught my breath a little bit," said Duhaime, who had family in attendance including his mom, Martine. "Tried to stay in the game. Yeah, it was good."
After getting promoted from the fourth line, Duhaime orchestrated most of the Wild's offense.
During a 3-on-1 rush with his new linemates, his shot caught a piece of Montreal goalie Jake Allen but the rebound bounced off the end boards to the side of the net, where Joel Eriksson Ek swatted the puck behind Allen just 5 minutes, 52 seconds into the first period.
A Cole Caufield shot from the right side slipped inside the near post 1:07 into the second period to erase the Canadiens' deficit before a special teams battle ensued.
Each side took two penalties, a scoreless struggle with both power plays finishing 0-for-3. But the Wild reignited when Duhaime returned.
He accepted a Frederick Gaudreau pass to skate in alone vs. Allen and deked before lifting in the go-ahead goal at 12:48 during just his second shift of the period; Duhaime ended up being inactive for 9:56 before he scored.
"I had a really good conversation with [coach Dean Evason] before the game, and he just reiterated, 'Just play your game,'" Duhaime said. "'Don't change it for anyone that you're playing with or anything like that. Just play hard, play your game and stick to what you're doing.'"
This gave him a goal in back-to-back games for the first time in his career after the 25-year-old also capitalized Saturday at Boston off a shorthanded breakaway. Duhaime has only one other two-point effort in his NHL career, another goal-and-assist performance Nov. 7, 2021, vs. the Islanders as a rookie.
"He's scored here the last two games," Evason said. "But the important thing is the disruption, the finishing checks, killing penalties. He's done a lot of good things for us, so happy for where he's at."
Add in a clean close to the second and perfect third period for goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, which included keeping out a Montreal penalty shot, and the Wild improved to 2-3-1 with three games to go on this five-game road trip.
After Jon Merrill impeded Mike Hoffman during a breakaway, Hoffman was awarded a penalty shot 5:50 into the third that Fleury blocked with his left pad. The save was the 14th in Wild history against 22 penalty shots, and Fleury is 22-for-28 in his career.
"The guys are so skilled," said Fleury, who has a .917 save percentage over his past three starts. "You never want to anticipate too much. I just try to stay patient, on my feet, and try to react the right way."
Overall, he racked up 26 stops in his 944th game to seize sole possession of sixth place on the NHL's all-time list for games by a goaltender.
Allen had 28 at the other end; he was on the bench when Eriksson Ek dumped his second goal of the game into an empty net with 31 seconds to go to put the finishing touches on the team's first regulation victory of the season and a template that could produce more if the Wild sticks to it.
"That's how we have to play," Evason said, "a gritty, determined game against a real good offensive hockey club that put a lot of pressure on us, and we did a lot of good things in the areas that we haven't done good things as far as defending and managing the puck very well tonight.
"Obviously, Flower was good. But we did a lot of good things defensively as well."
