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03/26 21:10 CDT Wild beat Panthers 3-2 on Joel Eriksson Ek's goal with 4.4
seconds left
Wild beat Panthers 3-2 on Joel Eriksson Ek's goal with 4.4 seconds left
By ALANIS THAMES
AP Sports Writer
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) --- Joel Eriksson Ek scored the winning goal with 4.4
seconds left to lift the Minnesota Wild past the Florida Panthers 3-2 on
Thursday night.
Marcus Foligno and Ryan Hartman also had goals for the Wild and Jesper
Wallstedt made 18 saves.
Minnesota, which is 3-4-1 in its last eight, entered Thursday's game five
points behind second-place Dallas and 12 points ahead of fourth-place Utah in
the Central Division. The Panthers entered Thursday 12 points behind the Ottawa
Senators for the second wild card in the Eastern Conference.
Aaron Ekblad hammered a shot inside the left post to tie it for Florida with
1:13 left. But Eriksson Ek answered with the winner in the closing seconds of
the third period.
Foligno, in his first game back from a lower-body injury, scored his eighth
goal of the season a couple minutes into the second period. It was also
Foligno's first time playing with his brother Nick, who was traded from Chicago
to Minnesota at the trade deadline and he embraced his brother after the score.
Matthew Tkachuk scored and assisted for the short-handed Panthers, who were
down nine players, including leading scorer Sam Reinhart, Aleksander Barkov and
Brad Marchand. Evan Rodrigues suffered an upper-body injury in the first and
did not return.
Daniil Tarasov stopped 47 shots.
Former Panther Jeff Petry, Brock Faber and Yakov Trenin had assists for the
Wild.
Minnesota's Jared Spurgeon was helped off the ice and to the dressing room
early in the third after appearing to collide with Noah Gregor near the post.
Minnesota defenseman and Olympic gold medalist Quinn Hughes played in his 500th
career game.
Up next Wild: At Boston Bruins on Saturday. Panthers: At New York Islanders on Saturday. ___ AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Up next Wild: At Boston Bruins on Saturday. Panthers: At New York Islanders on Saturday. ___ AP NHL: https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
