Marco Rossi records three points along with a Gordie Howe hat trick in the Wild's 4-3 win over the Canadiens.
ST. PAUL - Marco Rossi entered the game with his hair on fire it seemed. He was running around making plays and creating scoring chances for his linemates.
Rossi created the play that led to a power-play goal by Matt Boldy in the first period after Rossi got the puck to Kirill Kaprizov who fed Boldy across the slot for his ninth of the year.
About a minute later Rossi scored his 11th of the year from a slot shot after Zach Bogosian fed one to the young Austrian forward.
Later in the second period, Kaiden Guhle blasted Kirill Kaprizov into the boards and Rossi instantly came in and dropped the gloves with Guhle. The fight resulted in a 17 total penalty minutes as Rossi was given the instigator penalty.
"Yeah, it certainly did," Wild head coach John Hynes said on losing Rossi for 17 minutes and if it changed the flow of the game. "And then it was a hard push on the penalty kill guys to be able to do that."
After the penalty expired in the third period, Rossi came out of the box and just a couple shifts later he assisted on Brock Faber's power-play goal which gave the Wild a 3-2 lead.
"He did. I mean, Gordie Howe hat trick for him, so you gotta give him props for that. But it was tough to lose him, too, because he had some legs tonight," Hynes said on Rossi being the best player on the ice. "Like, he was going, so when he was out, that did affect us a little bit. But the guys stayed strong and we found a way to get it done."
Rossi now has 11 goals and 21 points in 31 games on the year for the Wild which is second in the NHL in goals and points among all rookies. He is one goal behind Connor Bedard for the lead.