Wild beat the Golden Knights 4-2 behind another stellar special teams performance

St. Paul, Minn. (AP) — In a thrilling first period, Max Shabanov scored on a power play to propel the Minnesota Wild to a 4-2 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday night. Shabanov's goal came alongside two other early goals from Matt Boldy and Danila Yurov, as the Wild outshot their opponents 23-11 during the opening two periods, including a impressive 6-1 tally while playing short-handed.

Rasmus Andersson added a goal in the second period, and William Karlsson scored in the third to bring Vegas within one goal. However, the Wild's defense stepped up, shutting out the Golden Knights after that. Joel Eriksson Ek put the icing on the cake with an empty-net goal with just 1:22 left on the clock. The Wild killed all five penalties against them, boasting an NHL-leading penalty kill rate of 21 for 22 this season.

Their strong power play also leads the league with 7 successful shots out of 17 attempts. Jesper Wallstedt made 21 saves in net for the Wild, while Carter Hart made 24 saves for the Golden Knights. The Wild tied a franchise record with six consecutive power-play goals at the start of the season, and Shabanov's goal was especially notable for bouncing off Vegas' blocker before Eriksson Ek blocked it at the crease.

The Wild, who have lacked first-pair defenseman Brock Faber due to a skull fracture, also lost forward Nico Sturm to injury during the first period when he was hit on the side of the head by teammate Jared Spurgeon's shot. Minnesota also has forward Marcus Foligno and Nick Foligno on injured reserve. Rookie Rieger Lorenz made his NHL debut and contributed with his first assist on Yurov's goal, and his first fight against Jeremy Lauzon in the third period.