Bring Me The Sports

Wild extend points streak as Fleury stays hot in Ottawa

A complete win as the Wild push their points streak to four games.

Joe Nelson

Wild extend points streak as Fleury stays hot in Ottawa
Wild extend points streak as Fleury stays hot in Ottawa /

It took only eight seconds for the tone to be set between the Wild and Senators as Brandon Duhaime and Austin Watson dropped their gloves and duked it out at center ice almost immediately after the puck dropped – and the fight continued the rest of the game until Freddy Gaudreau's short-handed, empty-net goal gave Minnesota a 4-2 lead with 2:21 left in the game. 

As strong as the offense was – Minnesota peppered Ottawa with 39 shots on goal – it was another elite performance in goal by Marc-Andre Fleury, who made 27 saves including seven on the power play. 

After starting 0-3, the Wild are now 3-3-1 and carrying a four-game points streak entering the fourth game of their five-game road trip Saturday in Detroit. 

Trailing 1-0 in the first period, Mats Zuccarello scored on a Minnesota power play to tie the game and about ten minutes later Kirill Kaprizov tipped in a shot for the 2-1 lead. Kaprizov and Zuccarello lead the Wild with five goals each this season. 

Ryan Hartman added to the lead with his first goal of the season early in the second period. 

Four of Fleury's seven power-play saves were with the Senators attacking to end the second period, allowing Minnesota to enter the final 20 minutes with a 3-1 lead. 

That was significant because Ottawa found itself in a 5-on-3 situation for two minutes in the third and they were able to snap one by Fleury to cut the deficit to 3-2, but Fleury stood tall for the remain 80 seconds of the man advantage. 

Fleury also got plenty of help with the Wild blocking 25 shots. Jared Spurgeon had seven blocks by himself. 

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Joe Nelson
JOE NELSON

Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen.  His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011.  Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play.  Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers.  Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17. 

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