Eric Staal scored two goals and Alex Stalock finished with 17 saves as the Minnesota Wild extended their home point streak to 12 games with a 4-1 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night in Saint Paul, Minn.
Zach Parise and Carson Soucy also scored goals and Jonas Brodin added two assists for Minnesota, which improved to 10-1-4 over its last 15 games. The Wild, who began the season with just one win and two points in its first seven games (1-6-0), moved within two points of the Vegas Golden Knights for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference.
The 12-game home point streak is just one shy of the longest in team history set from Dec. 27, 2017, through Feb. 13, 2018, when the Wild went 10-0-3.
James van Riemsdyk scored for Philadelphia, which lost its second straight game and for the third time in four games. Carter Hart stopped 24 shots.
Philadelphia scored on the first shot of the game when van Riemsdyk finished a two-on-one with Morgan Frost with a wrist shot from the right circle that beat Stalock on his glove side for his seventh goal of the season.
Minnesota came back and tied it five minutes when Kevin Fiala's wraparound shot on the right post caromed in off Parise's stick. It was the 13th goal of the season for Parise.
The Wild took a 2-1 lead 95 seconds later when Staal picked up a rebound of his own shot on the right side of the crease and backhanded in the rebound.
Staal made it 3-1 midway through the second period with a power play goal, firing in a wrist shot from the middle of the right circle that pinballed in through traffic. It was his 11th goal of the season and second multi-goal game of the season.
Philadelphia, which failed to register a shot on goal in the first 13 minutes of the second period, had just eight shots on goal and two scoring chances in the first two periods.
The Flyers pulled Hart with 3:12 left and 59 seconds left on a power play, and Soucy then sealed the win with a short-handed empty-netter.
--Field Level Media
Philadelphia | Minnesota | |
James van Riemsdyk 1 | Points | Eric Staal 2 |
James van Riemsdyk 1 | Goals | Eric Staal 2 |
Morgan Frost 1 | Assists | Jonas Brodin 2 |
N/A | Power Play Goals | N/A |
N/A | Short Handed Goals | Carson Soucy 1 |
Carter Hart .889 | Save Percentage | Alex Stalock .944 |
Carter Hart 24 | Saves | Alex Stalock 17 |
Team | Shots | Goals | Power Play | Penalty Kill | Penalty Mins | Face Offs Won |
Philadelphia | 18 | 1 | 0-3 | 5-5 | 15 | 31 |
Minnesota | 28 | 4 | 0-5 | 3-3 | 11 | 20 |