3/16 RECAP: It’s a Golden Night for Zucker

Does it get more storybook-ending than Nevada native Jason Zucker scoring the first-ever goal for the Minnesota Wild in the new T-Mobile Arena, home of the Vegas Golden Knights?

No. It does not.

On a night full of anticipation, madness and some good hockey, the Nevada golden boy, Zucker, scored his 29th goal of the season to put the Wild up 1-0 against Vegas in the Wild’s inaugural visit to the venue. It was a good start for the Wild as they played a complete game and skated to a 4-2 victory over Vegas.

The Wild (40-24-7) are the only NHL team to go 3-0 against the new-expansion and first-place Golden Knights (45-21-5) in their first season. Yet the Wild flop against teams like Arizona and Colorado. Go figure.

“That’s the way we need to come out every game… to work that hard and get rewarded feels great,” said Charlie Coyle.

Zucker’s goal came on a behind-the-net feed from Nino Niederreiter. Zucker rushed in and sent the puck upstairs. Then he was free to celebrate with his teammates and in front of his hometown. You could see by just looking at his expression that it wasn’t just another ordinary goal.

The Wild kept up the pressure throughout the first period and into the second. Coyle made it 2-0 at 5:53 of the second after a Matt Cullen shot failed to go in. Coyle found the rebound out front and lifted the puck to the top of the net for his 11th of the season. He also extended his point streak to five games with the goal. He has three goals and three assists during the past five games.

Just 1:43 later, Matt Dumba scored his 11th of the season after a 2-on-1 play with Zucker and Eric Staal didn’t work out. The Wild held onto that 3-0 lead late into the third period.

Vegas made it interesting, spoiling the shutout with 6:32 left in the third period. Not only that, but perhaps in another fitting, storybook way, former Wild player Erik Haula found the net on a broken-down Wild play in their own end. It was Haula’s 28th goal of the season.

Still down two goals, Vegas pulled netminder Marc Andre Fleury with 2:55 left in regulation, and it worked. Ryan Carpenter scored with 56 seconds left.

Zach Parise added an empty-netter from center ice to seal the victory, much to the delight of the crowd, which seemed to be filled with plenty of Wild fans considering it was a road game.

Coach Bruce Boudreau he’s never been a part of a game where so many visiting fans made the trip. There were “Let’s go Wild!” and “Skol” chants (sigh) to prove it was a Minnesota crowd.

“It was like a rock concert out there,” Boudreau said of the noise level. “This was as close to a playoff atmosphere as you’re going to get.”

Another intriguing factor: These two teams have the potential to face each other in the first round of the playoffs.

In goal:

Tidbits:

Up next:

The Wild finish off another back-to-back with a game in Arizona on Saturday night.