Frederick Gaudreau scored the decisive goal 1:49 into the third period after being stopped on a penalty shot early in the second as the Minnesota Wild rallied for a 3-2 victory over the host New York Rangers on Friday night.
Minnesota won its fourth straight and for the seventh time in eight games, spoiling a night when the Rangers retired goaltender Henrik Lundqvist’s No. 30 to the rafters. Lundqvist, who played for the Rangers from 2005 to 2020, became the 11th Rangers player to have his jersey retired.
Gaudreau scored his third goal of the season and his first since Nov. 18 when he beat New York’s Ryan Strome and Libor Hajek and had ample time to lift a wrist shot from the left faceoff circle off the post and over goalie Igor Shesterkin’s left pad.
Gaudreau scored after getting a penalty shot awarded when he was taken down by defenseman Braden Schneider on a partial breakaway. Shesterkin easily stopped Gaudreau by making a right pad save 2:56 into the second.
Former Ranger Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Fiala scored and both players set up Gaudreau’s tally.
Cam Talbot made 25 saves for Minnesota.
Barclay Goodrow scored for the third straight game and Chris Kreider scored his league-leading 31st goal but the Rangers saw a five-game home winning streak halted.
The Rangers nearly tied the game during a goalmouth scramble with 1.9 seconds remaining when Mika Zibanejad slipped a loose puck into the net but officials ruled Talbot’s pad was pushed by Strome’s stick and following the review with the situation room in Toronto the original call was confirmed.
Shesterkin finished with 31 saves.
Goodrow opened the scoring 8:47 in when he was left alone at the left doorstep and lifted the puck into the vacated left side of the net. Nearly nine minutes later, Kreider backhanded a rebound into the net while being pushed from defenseman Jordie Benn.
The Wild tied the game in a span of 89 seconds as Fiala lifted a one-timer from the low slot over Shesterkin with 7:42 remaining and during a power play, Zuccarello put a slap shot from the right side past Shesterkin with 6:13 left.
–Field Level Media