Wild Hold Onto Lead, Take Down Islanders 5-2

The Minnesota Wild faced the New York Islanders on the road on Friday evening, Nov. 7. The Wild were on the second half of a back-to-back while the Islanders were on the first half. Their injury list became one shorter as Mats Zuccarello rejoined the lineup after missing the past 15 games with a lower-body injury. They were still without Zach Bogosian and Nico Sturm. The Islanders were without Maxim Shabanov.

Jesper Wallstedt was in the net for the Wild as Filip Gustavsson had played the night prior, and for the Islanders, it was David Rittich. The game started out in favor of the Wild, and although the Islanders tried to push back, the Wild kept their foot on the gas and got the 5-2 victory. This moved the Wild’s record to 6-7-3 and the Islanders to 6-6-2.

Game Recap

The game was pretty back and forth until the Wild got on the scoreboard first with a goal from Vinnie Hinostroza. He was assisted by Jonas Brodin and Marcus Johansson to make it 1-0 just over seven minutes into the game. Just past the halfway point of the period, the Wild added another goal this time courtesy of Danila Yurov, with his second of the season. He was assisted by Yakov Trenin and Marcus Foligno. Those were the only two goals of the period, and the Wild took the lead into the second.

The Islanders answered back in the second period with a goal from Emil Heineman to cut the Wild’s lead in half. He was assisted by Bo Horvat and Mathew Barzal. The Wild responded to retake the two-goal lead with a goal scored by Brock Faber, who was unassisted. Marco Rossi scored a short time later to give the Wild a 4-1 lead. He was assisted by Kirill Kaprizov and Daemon Hunt. Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored for the Islanders with under two minutes to go in the period to get his team back within two goals. He was assisted by Anders Lee and Ryan Pulock. That was the final goal of the period, and the Wild held the 4-2 lead into the third.