Canucks Push Back to Beat Wild 4-2

The Minnesota Wild faced the Vancouver Canucks in the midst of their most recent road trip on Saturday evening, Dec. 6. The Wild’s injury list became slightly shorter as Danila Yurov returned, but they were still without Marco Rossi, Vinnie Hinostroza, and Marcus Foligno. The Canucks were without Elias Pettersson (center), Pierre-Olivier Joseph, Filip Chytil, Nils Hoglander, Thatcher Demko, and Derek Forbort. 

Jesper Wallstedt was in the net for the Wild, and Nikita Tolopilo was in for the Canucks. The game started in favor of the Wild, but the Canucks fought back and built a strong lead in the second period. They protected their lead and took the win 4-2. This moved the Wild’s record to 15-9-5 and the Canucks to 11-15-3.

Game Recap

The game went back and forth with chances until the Wild scored first to give themselves a 1-0 lead on a goal by Matt Boldy. Mats Zuccarello and Yakov Trenin assisted him. That was the only goal of the first period, and the Wild took the lead into the second. 

The Canucks thought they got their first goal of the game early in the middle period, but it was called off due to a kicking motion. However, they answered back with a good goal a few minutes later to tie the game 1-1. The goal was scored by Tom Willander, the first of his career, and Linus Karlsson and Jake DeBrusk assisted him. 

The Canucks scored again a couple of minutes later on a goal by Elias Pettersson to take their first lead of the game. Willander and Aatu Raty assisted him. Raty scored later in the period to extend the lead to 3-1. The lone assist went to Evander Kane. That was the final goal of the period, and the Canucks took the 3-1 lead into the third period.