Kahkonen gets first NHL shutout, Wild end Golden Knights winning streak

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Kaapo Kahkonen made 26 saves for his first NHL shutout, and the Minnesota Wild denied the Vegas Golden Knights a seventh straight win with a 2-0 victory at Xcel Energy Center on Monday.

"Kahkonen was outstanding," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "It was such a grinding game tonight, but he was just very calm, very solid, obviously very good. It was a bit of an ugly game, but two points is two points."
Kevin Fiala and Jonas Brodin scored, and Kahkonen won his seventh start in a row for Minnesota (14-8-1). The goalie was making his 18th NHL start.
"It was a great team win," Kahkonen said. "… It's just the daily work I believe that matters and doing those little things right, and that will get you there."
Marc-Andre Fleury made 20 saves for Vegas (16-5-1), which was without forward Mark Stone (undisclosed) and defenseman Alex Pietrangelo (arm), who each was a late scratch. Coach Peter DeBoer had no update on either player.
"I thought we battled hard, I thought we had good energy," DeBoer said. "The fact the last 40 minutes was better than our first 20 tells me we still have gas in the tank. You can't hide the fact that we got some key guys out, but I think there's a lot of teams dealing with that. We have a good enough group to get the job done tonight. It was a hard-fought game. We've got to find a way to get a goal. We did a lot of good things defensively and obviously in the net."
The teams will finish the two-game set here Wednesday.

Fiala made it 1-0 with a wrist shot on a 2-on-1 at 10:51 of the first period.
"We have to stay on, aggressive," Fiala said. "If it's [a] 1-0 game, we have to go for the next one. I feel this league is too good. If we sit back and just try to play defense, I feel like it's not going to go well.
"I feel tonight we did a good job. [Kahkonen] again, not just tonight, he's [been] unbelievable all season long."
Brodin was awarded an empty-net goal for the 2-0 final when he was slashed by Jonathan Marchessault.
"I think tonight they defended well, capitalized early in the game and we just couldn't get it back," Fleury said. "Close game all night long."
NOTES: Kahkonen tied Washington Capitals goalie Vitek Vanecek for the most wins by a rookie this season with 10. Among rookies in Wild history, he extended the longest winning streak and has the third-most wins in a season (Darcy Kuemper, 12, 2013-14; Josh Harding, 11, 2007-08). … Minnesota was 0-for-2 on the power play, is 0-for-19 in its past eight games and 5-for-74 (6.8 percent) this season. … Fleury had won five straight starts. … It was the second time the Golden Knights have been shut out in 22 games this season. They had scored four or more goals in each of their previous four games.