The bad news for the Wild? They might have lost starting goaltender Cam Talbot in the process.
While it’s unclear how serious Talbot’s apparent lower-body injury is, it was serious enough to keep him out of the final 40 minutes of play. He initially tried to gut it out before being replaced by backup goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen.
That put a damper on an otherwise solid game for the Wild, who improved to 4-1-0 on the season, continuing to take advantage of a favorable portion of their schedule.
It marked Kahkonen’s second appearance in as many games after he backstopped the Wild to a win over the Anaheim Ducks earlier this week. He picked up right where he left off with 17 saves in the win over the Sharks.
On the other end, Devan Dubnyk started in goal for the Sharks, his first game against the Wild since being traded this offseason. He finished with 25 saves in the loss.
It was another fast start for the Wild as Joel Eriksson Ek scored his third goal of the season early in the first period. Jordan Greenway also earned his fourth assist of the season on the sequence as the Wild took a 1-0 lead.
That lead wouldn’t last long, though, as the Sharks tied the score at 1-1 barely a minute later on a goal from Matt Nieto.
That’s where things started to go sideways for the Wild, as Kevin Fiala left the game after getting blasted by Logan Couture in the neutral zone, then Talbot suffered his apparent lower-body injury on a seemingly innocuous play in the crease.
Luckily for the Wild, Fiala returned for the start of the second period, and he finished the rest of the game without a hitch. That same thing couldn’t be said about Talbot, who initially led the team out of the locker room at the start of the second period before quickly being replaced by Kahkonen.
While it took him a couple of minutes to get comfortable, Kahkonen settled in nicely, then got some goal support from Zach Parise, who made it 2-1 in favor of the Wild late in the second period. It was the first goal of the season for Parise and came from his office in front.
That score held into the third period where Kahkonen made some big saves early before the Wild locked it down in front of him. Kevin Fiala scored an empty-net goal to make it 3-1 late, and Greenway tacked on an empty-net goal of his own to finalize the score at 4-1.
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January 23, 2021 at 11:00AM
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Wild beat Sharks, but lose Talbot in home opener - Grand Forks Herald
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