Quinn Hughes Has a Point in Every Game This Season and Minnesota Just Ended Vegas’s Streak
The Minnesota Wild scored three goals in the first period on Monday night and never gave them back, beating the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul and ending a four-game Vegas winning streak.
The score is the small story. The Wild are 4-1-1 and leading the NHL in both special teams, which is not something that happens by accident.
The First Period Decided It
Matt Boldy scored at 11:50. Maxim Shabanov added a power play goal at 14:32. Danila Yurov made it 3-0 at 16:57.
Vegas answered in the second through Rasmus Andersson at 2:37 and William Karlsson at 9:25, cutting it to 3-2 and making the third period uncomfortable. Joel Eriksson Ek sealed it with an empty-netter with 1:22 left.
Jesper Wallstedt stopped 21 shots for Minnesota. Carter Hart made 24 for Vegas. Mitch Marner recorded his 60th assist as a Golden Knight, the fastest any player has reached that mark in franchise history.
Hughes Is Doing Something Historic
Quinn Hughes picked up two assists and extended his season-opening point streak to six games.
That ties for the sixth-longest season-opening point streak by an American defenseman in NHL history, and it is the longest since John-Michael Liles put together nine in 2010-11. It also ties for the second-longest such streak in Wild history. Andrew Brunette holds the club record at seven, set in 2009.
Six games into a season is early enough that streak records feel like trivia. They stop feeling that way around game ten, and Hughes is four away.
The Special Teams Numbers Are Absurd
Minnesota has scored a power play goal in each of its first six games, tying a franchise record set in 2010-11. The Wild lead the NHL on the power play at 41.2 percent and on the penalty kill at 95.5 percent.
Neither number will hold. Nobody converts 41 percent of their power plays over 82 games, and nobody kills 95 percent. Both will regress hard.
What matters is that a team can bank points early while the percentages are absurd, and Minnesota is doing exactly that. The Wild have 4-1-1 in the standings column while their underlying play finds its level.
Vegas Is Fine
A four-game winning streak ending on the road against a hot team with elite special teams is not a cause for concern. The Golden Knights got goals from Andersson and Karlsson, got 24 saves from Hart, and lost because they spent the first period chasing.
Marner reaching 60 assists faster than anyone in franchise history is the headline Vegas should take from the night. He was signed to generate offense and he is generating it at a historic rate.
The Wild are the surprise. Six games in, they have the league’s best power play, the league’s best penalty kill, and a defenseman who has not had a pointless game yet.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
