Kevin Fiala breaks scoring drought in Wild win
Kevin Fiala picked the right time to break out of his playoff slump for Minnesota.
The team’s second-leading scorer during the regular season got his first two points of the postseason in the third period on Wednesday night to help the Wild to a 3-0 victory at Xcel Energy Center and even the first-round series with the Golden Knights.
Game 7 will be 6 p.m. Friday at T-Mobile Arena.
Fiala said after practice Tuesday he wasn’t getting frustrated despite getting no results out of 18 shots on goal in the series’ first five games.
Instead, he was concerned with the team’s lack of production as a whole. He helped change that with a perfect cross-ice pass to Ryan Hartman, who beat Marc-Andre Fleury to break a scoreless tie 4:21 into the third period.
Ending the drought appeared to bolster Fiala’s confidence.
The 24-year-old Switzerland native sniped a bast past Fleury on the power play five minutes later for an insurance goal and the Wild were in control, on the verge of rallying from a 3-1 series deficit.
“It’s great that I found the back of the net tonight and it was a huge game for us overall,” he said. “To get the momentum and win in front of our fans, it was a great night for us. But Game 7 is waiting so we have to regroup and do the same thing again.”
Minnesota coach Dean Evason said general manager Bill Guerin reminded the team this week that not every player is going to be able score in every game. The message was to keep playing the same way as long as you’re creating chances and results will come.
“You have to just stay the course and play right and maybe you’ll get a chance to make a difference and he did tonight,” Evason said of Fiala. “Kevin hasn’t changed anything. He’s played the same way and stayed the course and he got rewarded tonight.”
The production was more than enough for Cam Talbot, who made 23 saves and recorded his second shutout of the series.
“I’m just trying to go out there and give us a chance to win,” he said. “I’m playing behind an elite group in front of me. I can’t say enough about the guys laying their bodies on the line in front of me. I’m just one piece here and tonight there is 20 pieces out there that did their job, and it was just unbelievable to see and fun to play behind.”
One puck did get by Talbot, who was helped by 18 blocked shots. But Chandler Stephenson’s goal that would have tied the game in the third period was waved off because of goaltender interference on Alex Tuch.
“I’m always nervous,” Talbot said of the review. “I never get those calls. The way they’ve been calling them all playoff long, it’d be hard to overturn that. If that one stood, I probably wouldn’t be sitting here right now. I’d just be getting fined.”
Instead, he’s preparing for a Game 7. The Wild have played three of them in franchise history, all on the road. They have won all three.
Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AdamHillLVRJ on Twitter.
