Neither the Wild nor the Golden Knights has been left in the dust two games into the playoffs, and that's just fine with the Wild.
"This type of hockey suits us well," defenseman Ryan Suter said. "We're comfortable playing in those tight games, getting pucks deep and playing that low, grind-it-out style."
But after scoring just twice in Vegas to split the start of the series, the Wild returns home for Game 3 Thursday at Xcel Energy Center looking to uncork enough goals to conquer the gridlock.
"It's the playoffs," veteran Nick Bonino said. "I'm not surprised it's low-scoring. That being said, we're going to need to score more than one a night to beat this team in a seven-game series."
Standing in the way of the Wild's offense is Vegas goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury.
A three-time Stanley Cup champion and future Hall of Famer, Fleury has been the best player on the ice in the series, stopping 63 of 65 shots for an exceptional 0.98 goals-against average and .969 save percentage. A carom off a teammate's skate and point shot that he was screened on are the only two pucks to get behind Fleury, who has been especially locked-in on the more challenging attempts by the Wild.
During his team's 3-1 win in Game 2, Fleury faced 12 high-danger shots and snuffed out all 12.
"I can give you some cliches about making it harder for him to see and getting the rebounds up, but we're having some pretty good Grade A's here," said Bonino, who's familiar with Fleury's effectiveness since both won back-to-back Cups with Pittsburgh in 2016 and 2017. "We're making him move side to side. We've had a lot of 1-on-1 chances with him, and he's made some big saves.