The Wild snuff the Predators

Five Wild goals outburn a Saros shutout

A shutout wasn't enough

Juuse Saros stopped all 33 Boston shots. The Nashville Predators won 4-0. Their flame still went dark. That was qualification night in a virtual match: the Predators and the Minnesota Wild each played their own game, and whichever scored more went through. Nashville had finished 11th of 32 last season and Minnesota 20th. A year ago the Vancouver Canucks had ended Nashville's Gauntlet on qualification night, so a loss here meant two straight seasons gone on the first night.

Nashville builds four

Against the Boston Bruins at Bridgestone Arena, Luke Schenn and Mark Kastelic dropped the gloves at 3:15 of the 1st. Ryan O'Reilly then tipped in a power-play goal at 17:16, set up by Roman Josi and Filip Forsberg. Tommy Novak's wrister came 19:39 later. Gustav Nyquist added a wrister in the 3rd, and Luke Evangelista's empty-netter made it four. Jeremy Swayman made 38 saves for Boston.

The Wild blaze in Sunrise

The Wild answered against the Florida Panthers. Marco Rossi tipped one in at 11:40 of the 1st, and Marcus Johansson ripped a slap shot just 0:22 later. Matt Boldy tipped in a power-play goal at 2:40 of the 2nd. Sam Bennett's deflection got one back, but Mats Zuccarello snapped home a fourth 2:39 later. Then Joel Eriksson Ek's snap shot at 16:05 made it five, one better than Nashville. Jake Middleton assisted on three of them, and Filip Gustavsson made 24 saves. The Predators were snuffed. The Wild burn on, one of 29 flames still lit.