With a less-than-spectacular start to the 2022 campaign, it felt like a very early must-win game for the club to try and avoid falling to 0-3. The Minnesota Wild wanted to make their presence known against the defending Cup champions and brought up Mason Shaw from Iowa to take the place of Marco Rossi on the fourth line. Another change the bench made was starting goalie Filip Gustavsson, who came in in relief of Marc-André Fleury against the Los Angeles Kings.
Early in the first felt like deja vu. Three and half minutes into the period, Ben Meyers — a Minnesota native — tipped a puck up and over Gustavsson to put the Colorado Avalanche up 1-0.