Marco Rossi skated toward the Wild bench on Tuesday night at Xcel Energy Center, thinking he might’ve just scored the first point of his NHL career.
Unfortunately for Rossi, he had to wait a couple of minutes to know for sure.
Montreal coach Martin St. Louis decided to challenge the play with hopes that Rossi used a high stick to control the puck before Kirill Kaprizov scored. After a few minutes, the officials ruled that Rossi kept his stick below his shoulders and the goal counted.
After waiting a lifetime for the milestone moment, Rossi could finally celebrate.
That was the highlight of the night as the Wild took care of business in a rather decisive 4-1 win over the Canadiens. Marc-Andre Fleury made 34 saves in the win, continuing his stellar play between the pipes.
It was a slow start for the Wild as they looked every bit like a team returning from a 10-day road trip. Luckily for them, Fleury stepped up big time, making 15 saves in the first period alone to keep the Canadiens off the scoreboard.
Eventually, the Wild found their legs, and they dominated the Canadiens for the remainder of the game. It started to turn early in the second period when Mason Shaw scored to make it 1-0, then continued a couple of minutes later when Kirill Kaprizov delivered a highlight-reel goal to stretch the lead to 2-0.
With the Wild in complete control at that point, Rossi created a scoring chance late in the second period, batting a puck out of midair before Kaprizov hammered it home to make it 3-0. After the officials ruled it a good goal, Rossi took a seat on the bench, and his teammates celebrated around him.
Although it looked like Fleury was on his way to a shutout, Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki cut the deficit to 3-1 late in the third period. A few minutes later, Matt Boldy finalized the score at 4-1 with an empty-net goal. Connor Dewar got the assist after a tremendous effort to beat out a potential icing.