The Minnesota Wild dropped Game 1 of the best-of-seven series against the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 Sunday night.
It was a grind from start to finish and the difference was Vegas needing only five seconds to score on their first and only full power play opportunity while the Wild sent without a shot on goal on their lone power play.
Tied 1-1 in the second period, Joel Eriksson Ek lost balance and wound up being sent to the box for high-sticking — and the Knights needed only five seconds on the power play to win the draw and make one pass before Pavel Dorofeyev torched Filip Gustavsson for a 2-1 lead.
The Wild punched back but couldn't get a puck by Vegas goalie Adin Hill, and just 2:28 into the third period the Knights went ahead 3-1 when they found a rush and Brett Howden beat Gustavsson.
Vegas, the first team in NHL history to have fewer than 200 penalty minutes in an 82-game season, wasn't whistled for a penalty until being called for interference with 12:37 left in the game.
Even when Wild forward Ryan Hartman was cross-checked in the face — right in front of the officials — the whistles didn't blow.
Despite getting no help from the refs, Minnesota kept fighting. Matt Boldy's second goal of the game — a backhanded, wraparound score after Kirill Kaprizov's shot was deflected in front of the net — trimmed the deficit to one with just over eight minutes left in regulation.
But the final nail in the coffin came when rookie Zeev Buium, making his NHL debut for Minnesota, turned the puck over when the Wild pulled Gustavsson for an extra attacker with 81 seconds to go in the game. The turnover prompted Boldy to intentionally trip William Karlsson to prevent a breakaway, and the Wild never got another good look for a chance to tie the game.
The Knights scored on an empty net with 0.1 seconds left in the game for the 4-2 final score.
Minnesota was playing from behind most of the night. They found themselves down 1-0 when Tom Hertl dazzled by putting a puck in a tiny opening after tying up Brock Faber's stick and stealing the puck near the Wild net.
It only Minnesota two minutes, 20 seconds to score the equalizer, and it was just as stunning as Hertl's goal as Kaprizov lasered a pass through traffic to Boldy, Boldy delivered a precision shot for the 1-1 tie.
Game 2 is in Vegas at 10 p.m. CT Tuesday.
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