Mats Zuccarello opened the scoring as the Minnesota Wild beat the Vancouver Canucks 4-3 at home. The Norwegian also scored the penultimate goal.
The Norwegian was perfectly positioned at Canucks when the puck was played off the goal four and a half minutes into the game, making it 1-0 effective for the hosts at the Xcel Energy Center in St Paul.
Admittedly, the lead did not last several minutes before Bo Horvat equalized for Canucks. Four minutes before the start of the first half, the visitors from Vancouver took the lead with a Nils Aman goal. In the second half it was still equal between the two teams after Sam Steele equalized for Wilde.
Vancouver’s Dakota Joshua scored the lone goal in the second half and ensured the Canucks had an advantage before the third half.
This advantage was negated when Zuccarello once again gained net knowledge just over the middle of the period. Once again, he was positioned just right – next to Canucks goalkeeper Thatcher Demko – so when Kirill Kaprizov’s pass arrived, the Norwegian only needed to turn the ball inside Demko’s shin guard.
Full time the score was 3-3. And so the match continued into overtime, and in the end it was Kaprizov who secured Wilde’s 4-3 home win – with Zuccarello’s help.
The Norwegian had nearly 23 minutes on the ice in what has to be said was a good day on the job.
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