Fastest goals in Minnesota Wild history

After a slow second period saw Minnesota carry a 3-1 lead into the third, the Wild came out of the locker room knowing that it would do them well to put the pedal to the metal in the third to put the game against the Anaheim Ducks out of reach.

And boy did they ever. The Wild scored two goals four seconds apart, and three goals in the span of 1:35 en route to a 7-3 victory over the Ducks.

But where do these fast goals rank in Minnesota Wild and NHL history? We took a dive into the record books at NHL.com to find out...

Just 30 seconds into the third, Matt Boldy got the scoring going to extend the Wild lead to 4-1.

Boldy’s goal got the crowd back in the game and put the Ducks on their heels. But a goal in 30 seconds isn’t close to the Wild’s record - which is held by Jason Zucker who started the third period with a goal just eight seconds in against Edmonton back in 2014.

Just after Boldy’s goal, Mats Zuccarello charged the Ducks zone and got a puck past Anthony Stolarz just 4 seconds later.

Zuccarello’s feat does make the leaderboard for the Wild, ranking as the second fastest time between two goals in franchise history, bested only by Jim Dowd and Richard Park back in 2004 against the Chicago Blackhawks in a 4-2 Wild win.

Boldy and Zuccarello’s four-second span beat out Ryan Carter and Nino Neiderreiter, who scored seven seconds apart in 2014 when the Wild beat the Buffalo Sabres 6-3.

The NHL record is owned by the Montreal Canadians who, back in 2018, scored goals two seconds apart - but the second goal came on an empty net with the Washington Capitals having pulled their goalie. The second-place spot belongs to the St. Louis Eagles (yes, Eagles) back in 1935 in a 3-2 win over the Detroit Red Wings. It’s unclear whether or not Joe Lamb’s goal came with the goalie pulled.

Just over a minute later, Victor Rask made it a 6-1 game, scoring the Wild’s third goal in 95 seconds.

Three goals in 95 seconds does crack the top five for the Wild, falling just behind a three goal span in 88 seconds from Zach Parise, Daniel Winnik and current Iowa Wilder Eric Staal back in 2018, when Minnesota took down the Carolina Hurricanes 6-2.

The fastest three goals came from Cal Clutterbuck, Chad Rau and Kyle Brodziak, who needed only 59 seconds to score three goals in the second period of a 5-2 victory over the Dallas Stars back on January 2nd of 2012.

As fast as 95 seconds for three goals is (or 59 seconds for that matter), none of them come close to the 20 seconds it took for Johnny Bucyk, Ed Westfall and Ted Green to score thrice for the Boston Bruins in 1971. Or the 21 seconds it took Bill Mosienko, Bill Mosienko and Bill Mosienko to score a hat trick for the Chicago Blackhawks in 1952.