Joel Eriksson Ek had two goals and the Minnesota Wild came out on top of a low-scoring affair Tuesday, besting the host Montreal Canadiens 3-1.
Brandon Duhaime added a goal and an assist for Minnesota, which improved to 2-0-1 in the past three games. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 26 shots for the win.
Cole Caufield scored and Jake Allen made 28 saves for the Canadiens, who lost their second game in a row to close a 2-2-0 homestand.
Eriksson Ek opened the scoring early, tapping a fortunate bounce off the end wall past Allen just under six minutes into the contest. Eriksson Ek later added an insurance marker into an empty net with 31 seconds left in the game. The Swede led all Wild forwards with 20:29 of ice time.
Duhaime had a wrister that bounced off the end wall to set up Eriksson Ek’s goal in the first period. Duhaime added his own goal in the second period, his second of the season, to mark his first multi-point contest of the campaign.
Caufield stayed hot for the Canadiens in the middle period, burying his fifth goal of the season on a wide-angle shot that found its way past Fleury to tie the game at 1-1.
Fleury earned just his second win over the season in five tries. He carried an ugly 5.25 GAA and .847 save percentage into the contest.
Montreal defenseman Jordan Harris posted a game-high 25:39 of ice time while Wild forward Matt Boldy paced all skaters with eight shots on goal.
Both clubs went 0-for-3 on the power play while the Wild out-hit the Canadiens 19-10.
Tuesday marked the second game of a five-game road trip for the Wild. They took a 4-3 overtime loss in Boston against the Bruins to kick off the trip on Saturday.
The Canadiens will start a four-game road trip Thursday when they take on the Buffalo Sabres.
–Field Level Media
