There were worries about the Wild looking rusty, and slow coming off the “bye-week.” If there was rust, the Wild didn’t show it. Minnesota took the ice for the 12th time on Hockey Day Minnesota, hosting the NHL’s best team in the Tampa Bay Lightning. A slew of Minnesota natives found themselves on the score sheet as the Wild won a convincing 5-2 game in front of 19,007 friendlies.
It was all Minnesota early. The Wild were able to put together a number of good chances on Tampa Bay netminder Andrei Vasilevskiy. But it wasn’t until Tyler Ennis was clobbered in the neutral zone after watching his drop pass that the Wild really woke up.