EDMONTON, AB — Freddy Gaudreau potted two goals and an assist as the Minnesota Wild beat the Oilers 5-3 in Edmonton Thursday night.
Red-hot Matt Boldy, Marcus Foligno and Marcus Johansson also scored for the Wild, who have won five of their last seven games (5-1-1). Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, starting his first game in two weeks, had 29 saves.
Leon Draisaitl, Corey Perry and Jeff Skinner scored for the Oilers, who have lost three of four. Stuart Skinner made 21 saves in net for the Oilers.
The game got off to an odd start as Draisaitl sent the puck up the ice from his own blue line and it ricocheted off two skates and slowly rolled toward the Wild net. Fleury went to swat it up the ice, but the puck took a hop and bounced through his pads to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead just 27 seconds into the game.
“I haven’t played in two weeks,” said Fleury, whose last appearance came in a 5-2 win against the San Jose Sharks on Nov. 7. “And I wanted to get off to a good start and have a good game.”
“It can happen to anyone. It’s just such a tough bounce,” said Johansson in support of his goaltender. “I think it bounced by three guys, so it was something that you almost just laugh off and start over.
“Stuff like that happens in hockey over a year and I feel like you laugh it off and ‘Flower’ did too. He was unbelievable tonight. It was fun to see.”
Takeaways
Wild: Kirill Kaprizov’s assist on Boldy's goal in the first period extended his points streak to seven games (six goals, seven assists). There was also a scare for Minnesota when their all-world forward went down with 4:23 left in the second period following a knee-on-knee collision with Drake Caggiula. Kaprizov headed into the locker room briefly but would later return to the game.
The Wild responded, with Boldy engaging in a short scrap with Caggiula and defenseman Jake Middleton also challenging the Edmonton winger.
“Obviously frustrating seeing that happen, and to us, from our angle, it didn’t look like a good hit,” Wild head coach John Hynes told reporters after the game.
Oilers: With injuries to Viktor Arvidsson and Zach Hyman, forward Kasperi Kapanen made his debut on Edmonton’s second line, two days after being claimed off waivers from St. Louis.
Key moment
With the score tied 2-2 in the second period, the Wild had the puck in the Oilers zone. Edmonton had several chances to swat at loose pucks but couldn't clear it away, and Johansson got it on the right side and fired it past Skinner to put Minnesota ahead at 9:10. Gaudreau then scored later in the second and again midway through the third to push the lead to 5-2.
The tallies were just Gaudreau's 3rd and 4th of the year, a good sign for a club desperate for secondary scoring to take some of the burden off of stars Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy.
Key stat
The Wild have 30 road wins against the Oilers, the most against any team. Minnesota is 19-5-0 at Edmonton dating back to the 2010-11 season.
Up Next
Minnesota is at Calgary on Saturday to finish a three-game trip before returning home to face archrival Winnipeg Monday.