The Wild, which won its exhibtion opener, 2-1, against the Buffalo Sabres on Monday night, hosts the Colorado Avalanche tonight.
Jason Zucker scored the winner with 4.6 seconds left last night on a power play. He teed up a Matt Dumba setup with Mike Reilly getting the other assist. Kurtis Gabriel scored the tying goal on a delayed penalty and Alex Stalock made 39 saves in the win.
"I think it was like a first game," coach Bruce Boudreau said this morning. "A lot of mistakes from both teams, a lot of stuff that we're trying to implement that wasn't as good as you'd like on both sides. But there were some things that were good, too. I really liked the compete level of our team. Stalock was really good in goal. We took five penalties. It's great that they went 0 for 5. And our power play won us the game, and that might be something that's going to have to happen for our team a lot."
Boudreau said his first experience running a bench with assistants Scott Stevens and John Anderson went well. He said communication went well all game.
He said young defensemen Nick Seeler and Hunter Warner really stood out, and the best forward was Zucker and Charlie Coyle played a ton and played well.
It was Alex Tuch's exhibition debut.
"He had his bright spots," Boudreau said. "He can be a bull in a china shop."
On Gabriel, who's vying for a job, Boudreau said, "He did a good job. He controlled the puck in the corners. He played a simple game, which is what you want. At Braemar, he ended up scoring a lot of goals. He has a pretty good shot. It's underestimated."
