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 Goals by left wingers Zach Parise and Thomas Vanek and another by
right winger Nino Niederreiter kept the Minnesota Wild undefeated at
home, and the Blue Jackets winless anywhere.
Trailing in the second period, the Wild rallied for a 3-2 win, as
Columbus fell to 0-8-0, losing its first game under new coach John
Tortorella after former coach Todd Richards was fired Wednesday.
Goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky made 20 saves for the Blue Jackets, who
got first-period goals from centers Alexander Wennberg and Brandon
Dubinsky to take a 2-1 lead but were held without a goal in the
final two frames.
"We're 0-8. Moral victories aren't going to help us right now,"
Tortorella said. "But for a number of minutes, I thought we played
hard, I thought we won battles on the wall, played the way I think
we're going to have to play to get us out of this, but we come up
empty as far as points."
Goalie Devan Dubnyk made 27 saves for the Wild.
Columbus dominated in shots early, but Minnesota made the first mark
on the scoreboard. Wild defenseman Ryan Suter grabbed a no-look
clearing attempt by Blue Jackets defenseman Jack Johnson at the blue
line and took the puck deep into the left corner. With Parise
crashing to the net, Suter zipped a pass to the top of the crease
for a tap-in goal.
The Blue Jackets tied it at 1-1 midway through the opening period
when Wennberg's shot from a wide angle deflected off Dubnyk's right
leg pad and in. It was the first goal of the season for Wennberg,
who scored four times last season as a rookie.
The Wild were fully aware that with a new coach on the other bench,
they would get a push from the Blue Jackets.
"I just feel like we talked so much about how hard they were going
to come out and how hard they were going to play, I don't know if we
psyched ourselves out or what, but it was a pretty ugly start for
us," Parise said. "But we were able to turn the page and be a better
team in the second period."
Dubinsky scored on a power play with 20.2 seconds remaining in the
opening period to put Columbus up 2-1, tapping the puck into a
gaping net with Dubnyk out of position after right winger Cam
Atkinson redirected the puck in front of the goalie.
"He's demanding," Blue Jackets captain Nick Foligno said of the
first game under the notoriously volatile Tortorella. "You can hear
him on the bench. But he's teaching, too. You can hear it. It's
going to be a work in progress for all of us, but I liked what I
saw."
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Niederreiter's goal early in the second period tied the score at
2-2. Niederreiter settled down the rebound of a long-range shot by
defenseman Jared Spurgeon and slapped a shot between Bobrovsky's
knees.
When Columbus defenseman Cody Goloubef took two penalties on the
same shift, giving Minnesota a four-minute power play, Vanek cashed
in to give the Wild a 3-2 lead, deflecting a shot by left winger
Jason Zucker behind the Blue Jackets goalie.
"We talked before the game about just making sure we were ready for
a hard game and sort of being unflappable, and I think that was real
important tonight," said Wild coach Mike Yeo, whose team improved to
4-1-1. "Obviously, the first period was not the way we drew it up,
but what was important was that we didn't let that get to us. We
found our game, we got to it and a big win."
NOTES: The 0-8-0 start by Columbus is well short of the NHL record
for season-opening futility. At the start of the 1943-44 campaign,
the New York Rangers went 0-11-0, finally earning a tie in their
12th game. New York finished a dismal 6-39-5 that season. ... By
scoring at Arizona last week, Wild LW Thomas Vanek became the first
University of Minnesota product to crack the 300 career goal mark.
Local fans of the Gophers' rivals were quick to point out that
Minnesota Duluth product Brett Hull retired with 741 career goals.
... Todd Richards, fired Wednesday as coach of the Blue Jackets, won
127 games in Columbus over parts of five seasons, making him the
franchise's all-time winningest coach. ... This was the fourth time
in their first six games this season that the Wild faced a
previously winless team.
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