Talbot makes 28 saves, Wild shut out Golden Knights

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Cam Talbot made 28 saves for the Minnesota Wild in a 3-0 win against the Vegas Golden Knights at Xcel Energy Center on Monday.

Talbot, who has won six straight starts, got his second shutout of the season hours after Minnesota acquired goalie Marc-Andre Fleury in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks. Fleury served as Talbot's backup.
"I knew I was playing today no matter what happened," Talbot said. "[Wild general manager Bill Guerin has] been very good at communicating with me and letting me know what's going on and keeping me in the loop, so I've got to give Billy a lot of credit. Those aren't easy conversations to have with a guy, and when he goes out and makes a deal like that and goes all-in, it just kind of benefits the team, really.
"We had to come out here and know that he's gone all-in for us, and we have to go all-in for him now. It's just one of those things. I knew I was playing. I just stayed focused on my game. I know we're going to be sharing the net here, so I just go out there and play my game when I'm in there and support him when he's in there."

Nicolas Deslauriers scored in his debut with the Wild (37-20-4), who have won three in a row.
"[Talbot] only cares about winning hockey games," Minnesota coach Dean Evason said. "He doesn't care about Cam Talbot, [he] cares about the team, and yeah [his play] was fantastic."
Logan Thompson made 33 saves for the Golden Knights (34-27-4), who won their previous two games but lost their sixth straight on the road.
"I mean, we're desperate right now, right?" Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. "We know where we are in the standings. We know what we have to do to get in, through playoffs. I thought we did a good job coming out. Obviously, it wasn't enough. Easy to say, you don't win, but I think if you look at the effort a lot of guys put in, you can be proud of that. But you know, again, we've said that a lot. We've got to find a way to win hockey games."
Deslauriers scored at 5:43 of the first period on a one-timer from Brandon Duhaime to give the Wild a 1-0 lead. He played on a line with Duhaime and Tyson Jost after being acquired in a trade with the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday.
"It's a line thing, it's not just me," Deslauriers said. "Great pass by [Duhaime] there. I think our line is something we can bring. It's fun playing with those two guys. Jost is a fast, skilled, hard-working guy, and [Duhaime], playing against him, he's a hard guy [who] can fly too. That's a line goal, not me."
Matt Dumba made it 2-0 at 5:46 of the third period with a wrist shot from the high slot, and Ryan Hartman scored an empty-net goal with seven seconds left for the 3-0 final.
"When everyone is clicking, we're an unstoppable team and we're bringing up some guys that just want to win," Minnesota forward Marcus Foligno said. "That's the mentality we have, just to do whatever it takes to win and bring in some character guys like the ones we've brought in. Now it's time to go."

Vegas was without forward Michael Amadio, defenseman Zach Whitecloud and assistant Ryan McGill after each entered COVID-19 protocol. Forwards Paul Cotter, Jonas Rondbjerg and defensemen Daniil Miromanov and Zack Hayes were recalled from Henderson of the American Hockey League.
"Tough day on our group," Golden Knights coach Peter DeBoer said. "We had guys arriving literally 15 minutes before warmups that flew from Henderson to help us here tonight, so it wasn't an easy day. And we could have used some of those excuses and not put in the effort we did, but we did, and we battled hard for 60 minutes. There's not a lot of moral victories this time of year because you need the points, but I was proud of our effort.
"Obviously we have to find a way to score some goals, so we're going to need someone to stick a couple in the net in order to win."
NOTES: Talbot made 13 saves in the second period. … Hayes made his NHL debut and had one shot on goal and led Vegas with six hits in 9:22 of ice time. … Deslauriers had six of Minnesota's 34 hits. … Hartman has scored 10 points (seven goals, three assists) in his past 10 games.