WILD BREAK GAME OPEN IN THIRD PERIOD:
Tied 2-2 after 40 minutes, the game got away from the Islanders in the final frame.
The Islanders entered Tuesday’s game as the stingiest first period team in the NHL, but Minnesota opened the scoring 19 seconds into the contest.
Joel Eriksson Ek sent a pass from behind the net to Pat Maroon, who shelfed a shot from a sharp angle to beat Semyon Varlamov, opening the scoring. The tally ended Varlamov’s shutout streak at 137:39.
The Islanders rebounded toward the back half of that opening frame with a few strong sequences. After a battle for the puck along the boards behind the net, Casey Cizikas scooped up the puck and to set up Noah Dobson in the right circle, who fired a slap shot through Marc-Andre Fleury to knot the score at one apiece. Building off that momentum in the middle frame, Oliver Wahlstrom navigated past three Wild defenders and moved in on Fleury to capture the first Islander lead of the night.
The Wild responded 3:29 later with a Vinni Lettieri goal from the high slot, beating a screened Varlamov to tie the game at two apiece. The Islanders closed out the period strong, swarming and setting up in the Minnesota zone but were unable to capitalize.
Tied 2-2, the game was up for grabs, but the Wild broke the game open in the third period, scoring twice in a span of 42 seconds to give Minnesota a 4-2 advantage.
The critical stretch occurred when Dobson took a minor penalty and the Islanders were back on the penalty kill for the third time in the game. Kirill Kaprizov converted on the power play, which held as the game-winner for Minnesota, one-timing a cross-ice feed from Mats Zuccarello.
“We still had a lot of time left, and then we gave up another one right away,” Lambert said.
Less than a minute later, Maroon fed a wide-open Eriksson Ek next to the crease to tack on another goal, as Minnesota was able to carry the 4-2 lead through the end of the game. Despite a late push, the Islanders could not mount a comeback.
