ST. PAUL — Marco Rossi became the second rookie in franchise history to reach the 20-goal mark by scoring twice during the second period in the Minnesota Wild's 5-4 overtime loss to the St. Louis Blues inside Xcel Energy Center on Saturday afternoon.
The 22-year-old center entered Saturday’s game with 18 goals in 70 games. That was tied for second with Marian Gaborik (2000-01) for most goals as a rookie in Wild history. But, with two goals against St. Louis, Rossi now has sole possession of second and trails only Kirill Kaprizov's 27-goal rookie season in 2020-21.
Rossi, who centered the top line with Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello, gave the Wild 2-1 and 3-2 leads on Saturday. On the first goal, Rossi beat Jordan Binnington five hole on a breakaway after a nice feed from Kaprizov.
Then, Rossi scored his second goal of the night and 20th of the season when Zuccarello’s pass redirected off his skate.
“If we would have won the game, it would be different,” Rossi said of what hitting 20 goals means to him. “Yeah, it's nice. I try to help the team.”
Rossi's 20 goals (which is fourth on the Wild) rank second behind only Chicago's Connor Bedard among NHL rookies and his 37 points rank fourth.
“Marco has done all the right things, all the things we’ve asked of him,” Iowa general manager and Wild director of hockey operations Mike Murray told The Hockey News last month.
“And to see him succeed out there —it’s nice to see all that (work) pay off.”
Fellow Wild rookie Brock Faber, who now has seven goals and 40 points on the blue line this season, also had a two-point night with a goal and an assist.
“I think to have younger players in your lineup and play important roles and not only just play but be real productive players for you is certainly I think good for them as individuals and their confidence levels as players,” Wild coach John Hynes said of Rossi and Faber.
“But also I think for your team moving forward, that’s certainly something that has to happen — particularly in the salary cap era where you have to be able to have young guys come in to your lineup. Lots of times on entry level contracts. And if those guys can be impact players like Rossi and Faber have been, it certainly is going to help your team in the now, as they have this year, but also in the future, for sure.”
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