ST PAUL, Minn. — Frederick Gaudreau scored in the shootout to lift the Minnesota Wild to a 2-1 win over the New York Islanders on Tuesday night.
Filip Gustavsson made 39 saves and stopped two shots in the shootout for Minnesota, which has won six of seven and has a season-high, seven-game point streak. Ryan Reaves scored for the first time as a member of the Wild, who stayed ahead of Winnipeg for third in the Central Division.
Josh Bailey scored and Ilya Sorokin stopped 30 shots for New York, which had won four of six.
On a day when both teams made trades, they got scoring from their fourth lines.
Bailey opened the scoring 14:15 into the first from in front of the net. Scott Mayfield’s initial shot from the point was stopped but the puck bounced to Bailey, who knocked it into an open net for his first goal in 24 games.
Minnesota answered less than four minutes later with Reaves scoring for the first time since last April 27 when he was with the New York Rangers. The enforcer, who came to the Wild in a November trade, also got into a fight with Islanders forward Ross Johnston just 2:06 into the game.
It wasn’t just Reaves and Johnston trying to provide a spark.
Minnesota general manager Bill Guerin made two trades to add depth to the forward lines. He acquired Marcus Johansson from Washington for a 2024 third-round draft choice and later added Gustav Nyquist from Columbus for a 2023 fifth-round selection.
Nyquist has been on injured reserve since Jan. 25 but is expected to be ready for the playoffs. Johansson previously played 36 games for Minnesota in 2020-21, when he had six goals and eight assists.
Johansson had 13 goals and 15 assists in 60 games for Washington this season.
“These two players, I think, are what we were missing, what we needed,” Guerin said before the game. “And that is, they’re highly skilled guys, excellent skaters. I think they’re going to provide us with just some, that natural ability out there.”
Islanders president of hockey operations Lou Lamoriello tried to boost New York’s playoff chances, giving a 2024 third-round draft pick to Toronto for forward Pierre Engvall. Engvall had 12 goals and nine assists in 58 games for the Maple Leafs this season.
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