ST. PAUL, Minn. — Birthday boy Jared Spurgeon scored two goals and Marco Rossi added the other as the Minnesota Wild rallied from a 2-0 deficit for a victory for the second time this season.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 20 saves to improve to 5-0-1 as the Wild beat the Chicago Blackhawks, 3-2, at Xcel Energy Center.
The Wild are 13-0-1 in their past 14 meetings with their rival from two states over. Marcus Foligno had an empty-net goal wiped off the board with 32 seconds left because of a mistake made by a linesman calling an icing. The result was no goal but a center-ice faceoff.
Kirill Kaprizov played his 300th career game and assisted on Rossi’s goal. It was his 366th career point. The only active players with more points through 300 games include Sidney Crosby (407), Connor McDavid (394), Alex Ovechkin (384) and Evgeni Malkin (371). Only Ovechkin (204) and Auston Matthews (176) have more goals through 300 games among active skaters than Kaprizov’s 174.
Filip Gustavsson, who is 10-4-3 with a 2.06 goals-against average and .929 save percentage, will start Saturday night when the Nashville Predators visit for a rare home back-to-back for the Wild.
Spurgeon celebrates the big 35 in style
On the 14th anniversary of his NHL debut, Spurgeon celebrated his 35th birthday with his first two goals of the season.
Spurgeon, who has been on one of the NHL’s best shutdown defense pairs with Jonas Brodin this season, played his second game in a row alongside Declan Chisholm because of an upper-body injury to Chisholm.
With the Wild down 2-0, Rossi scored off a beauty tic-tac-toe with Marcus Johansson and Kaprizov, then Spurgeon tied the score 17 seconds later for the fastest Wild goals since Jake Middleton and Jordan Greenway scored 15 seconds apart in Dec. 2022.
Later in the second, Spurgeon sent a 59-foot wrist shot that somehow got through Petr Mrazek’s glove for a 3-2 lead. This was the second time Spurgeon has scored on his birthday (also 2019). He is one of three Wild defensemen with a goal on his birthday, according to NHL Stats (Ryan Suter and Lubomir Sekeras).
Jared Spurgeon with his second of the game. 3-2 #mnwild pic.twitter.com/UuboogosSH
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) November 29, 2024
Rossi keeps producing
Rossi scored his seventh goal of the season and now is on pace for 25 goals and 64 points this season. Both would be career highs.
He was the recipience of a couple of gorgeous passes by Johansson and Kaprizov, who was only on the line for this shift because Ryan Hartman got banged up after being hobbled by a Brock Faber shot.
Taylor Hall coughed up the puck to Kaprizov in the Minnesota end, and the Wild countered on a three-on-two. Alex Vlasic did a solid job pushing Kaprizov to the wall as he crossed the Blackhawks blue line, but Kaprizov sent a cross-zone pass to Johansson. He at first bobbled the puck, but he reached forward to corral it and quickly sent a seeing-eye pass through the slot to the backdoor for Rossi’s one-timer.
Marco Rossi (10:22) and Jared Spurgeon (10:39) score within 17 seconds of each other, tying it up at 2!#mnwild pic.twitter.com/mokBmGuZrA
— Hockey Daily 365 l NHL Highlights & News (@HockeyDaily365) November 29, 2024
The Wild continue to pursue Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman David Jiricek, but Rossi wouldn’t be included in the package if the deal gets completed, according to a source briefed on the negotiations. If the trade does get done, it’ll likely center around a prospect because the Wild don’t want to do anything that would weaken their NHL roster.
GO DEEPER
Why the Wild are in hot pursuit of Blue Jackets defense prospect David Jiricek
Brodin, Lauko, Khusnutdinov updates
Marat Khusnutdinov returned from a lower-body injury, but the Wild were without Brodin and left wing Jakub Lauko.
The Wild need to get further information on Brodin’s upper-body injury. He’s been dealing with the issue for a while and it sounds like they’re going to be careful with it as the schedule gets busier. Lauko also had an MRI, and while it doesn’t sound like he has a serious injury, it will need time to heal.
Lastly, there is no update as to when Mats Zuccarello can return to practice. He has been around the Wild’s practice facility lately, but he is still sidelined after undergoing surgery after being struck by a Faber shot to the nether region on Nov. 14.
(Photo: Nick Wosika / Imagn Images)
