The Wild made a change in goal during the second period and it sparked a comeback win.
ST. PAUL - The Minnesota Wild (26-11-4) made a change in goal during the second period against the St. Louis Blues (19-19-4) and it sparked a comeback win.
The Wild were out in front with a 2-0 lead over the Blues early in the first period but allowed four unanswered goals. They allowed al four after Brock Faber went down with an injury.
After the fourth Blues goal, Wild head coach John Hynes made a switch in goal. Filip Gustavsson came out and Marc-Andre Fleury went in.
"Yeah, again it makes a coaching decision, but the players always make it look good, right? So it was just one where it wasn't so much Gus, and I told him that," Hynes said. "We were in a little bit of a lull and they had momentum. It wasn't a lot going on in the game for us, the energy level of the team and it seemed like something that it might be the right time to do it, but then obviously you say it's a great decision because Flower comes in and plays great. So it's on Flower, not me."
Fleury, 40, came in and stopped all 15 shots he faced in the win. It was his sixth relief win of his career in 163 appearances.
“We had a little bit of a slow second, right? We didn’t look like ourselves much there," Fleury said on the change in goal. "I don’t know if Hynesie did it to maybe change things up a bit. But after that I thought the guys played great. I didn’t have many shots in the second and even the third. But they controlled the puck so much, right, and towards the end the guys battled so hard, blocking shots, coming back, helping in the zone. They made my job easier for sure.”
The Wild ended up scoring four straight goals of their own and walked away with an impressive 6-4 win over the Blues.
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