EDMONTON, ALBERTA — The highlights came at the other end of the ice, where a glut of goals further certified the potency of the Wild's offense.
Wild's blazing start, repaired defense blitzes Edmonton 7-3 in opener of Canada trip
The Wild jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first period and steamrolled the Oilers in the opener of a four-game road trip through Canada.
February 21, 2022 at 1:08PM
But the catalyst for this scoring surge was the defensive zone, a back-to-basics transformation after a sloppy spurt that helped propel the Wild to a 7-3 rout of the Oilers on Sunday in front of 9,150 at Rogers Place at the beginning of a four-game road trip.
Not only did this turnaround nix the team's two-game skid, it was also a reminder that the Wild is at its best when its sharp all over the rink.
"We don't feel that we're an offensive team," coach Dean Evason said. "We feel that we are a well-rounded, two-way hockey team. We don't want to get into track meets. We don't want to get into a rush game. That's not who we are. We talk about it all the time is grit before skill and if we do that, then our skill will show."
This was the Wild's sixth game that featured at least seven goals, which is tops in franchise history. The Wild is also one of only two teams this season to register seven-plus goals in six or more contests; Colorado has seven.
Kevin Fiala scored twice and added an assist, the fourth line chipped in two goals and Kaapo Kahkonen set the record for rookie wins by a Finnish-born goalie after improving to 12-3-2 on the season with a 30-save performance. He's also 8-1-1 in his past 10 starts.
"We got [the puck] deep and we kept being on the inside and played the right way," said Kahkonen, whose 31 victories passed Pekka Rinne for the most among Finnish-born rookies. "That's how you succeed."
After back-to-back lopsided losses, the Wild quickly hit the reset button.
In his return to action after not playing since Jan. 1 because of a broken finger, Nick Bjugstad sent the puck to Brandon Duhaime for a one-timer 2:49 into the game that eluded Edmonton goalie Mike Smith.
By 5:21, the Wild doubled its lead when Joel Eriksson Ek capitalized on a shot from the slot for his team-leading 10th power-play goal. Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello assisted, extending their respective point streaks to five games. Zuccarello's 19 points on the power play are a career high.
Fiala had the next two tallies, giving the Wild four goals on seven shots.
At 6:17, he toe-dragged around Darnell Nurse before burying a shot off a 2-on-1 rush. Then, Fiala skated into a Matt Boldy pass and wired it past Smith's blocker at 13:38.
"My focus was today just to get a little more shots off quicker," Fiala said. "I felt I was a little too cute in the last couple games, and it worked out."
His finish chased Smith from the game. He left with three saves and was replaced by Mikko Koskinen, who had 12 stops in relief. Overall, the four goals from the Wild tied the franchise record for the first period and matched the high for a period this season.
But Edmonton didn't exit the period emptyhanded, with Evander Kane's redirect on the power play at 16:32 getting behind Kahkonen.
The Oilers had another late goal in the second, Tyler Benson's first career goal with 4:02 to go, but by then Edmonton had already fallen further behind.
"We were very mindful of where everybody was on the ice, and it led to offense," Evason said.
Connor Dewar's shot caromed off the post and banked off Koskinen before rolling in 8:28 into the period. Then Boldy picked up his second point of the game at 14:21 when he flung a shot in from the middle. Through 16 games, the rookie has 16 points.
In the third, Zuccarello converted on a breakaway 5:36 into the period to seal his fourth straight game with multiple points. The Oilers scored once more on a backhand from Zach Hyman with 1:06 to go, but overall the Wild seemed to rediscover its identity — in all three zones.
"We played our game a lot more tonight right from beginning," Boldy said, "just kind of getting pucks in and playing hard and not letting them break out. So definitely more of how we want to play."
The Wild have been the surprise of the league as their high-scoring winger makes a shambles of team scoring records.
