Vegas Golden Knights vs Minnesota Wild Match Player Stats On Mar 10, 2021

Joel Eriksson Ek scored two goals and Kaapo Kahkonen made 24 saves as the Minnesota Wild overcame a hat trick by rookie defenseman Dylan Coghlan to complete a sweep of its back-to-back with the Vegas Golden Knights, prevailing 4-3 on Wednesday in Saint Paul, Minn.

Kirill Kaprizov and Carson Soucy also scored goals for Minnesota, which moved within two points of the first-place Golden Knights in the West Division while also improving to 5-0-1 all-time against Vegas at Xcel Energy Center.

Kahkonen, coming off his first career shutout on Monday night, extended his personal winning streak to eight games, longest in the NHL this season.

Coghlan, playing in just his 12th career NHL game, registered the first hat trick by a defenseman in Vegas history. Marc-Andre Fleury had 25 saves for the Golden Knights before departing at the 11:39 mark of the third period after allowing three goals over a 6:23 span. Logan Thompson replaced him and made two saves in his NHL debut.

Minnesota, coming off a 2-0 victory in Monday night's series opener, needed just 19 seconds to take a 1-0 lead when Eriksson Ek fired a wrist shot that went off Fleury's glove and into the right corner of the net.

Vegas came back to tie it just 83 seconds later on Coghlan's first career NHL goal. The 23-year-old pounced on a loose puck near the top of the slot and fired a wrist shot past a screen by Cody Glass that clanged off the left post and into the net.

Minnesota took a 2-1 lead with just its sixth power-play goal in 76 tries this season, snapping an 0-for-20 streak in the process after Nicolas Hague dragged down Mats Zuccarello for a holding penalty. Nick Bjugstad drew the faceoff back to Zuccarello, who blasted a shot off Fleury's pads to Kaprizov, who backhanded the rebound into the top right corner of the net at 1:18 of the third period.

Eriksson Ek made it 3-1 less than five minutes later when he crashed the net and put in his own rebound of a shot that Fleury lost track of between his pads. Soucy followed with his first goal of the season, one-timing a Nico Sturm crossing pass from the right circle and chasing Fleury.

Coghlan then cut it to 4-2 with six minutes left when he fired a shot inside the right post from the slot. He then garnered the hat trick with 2:10 left when, after Thompson was pulled for an extra attacker, he one-timed a Shea Theodore pass from the left point to make it 4-3. Vegas nearly tied, it but Alex Tuch fired a close-in rebound wide of the net.

--Field Level Media