ST. LOUIS – As opening nights go, this one was worthy of a standing ovation.
The high hopes of Minnesota Wild fans, and the high-priced investments they made in long-term contracts, were realized, emphatically in game one, as Ryan Hartman scored a pair of goals in a convincing 5-0 win over the Blues in St. Louis.
Goalie Filip Gustavsson, signed to a five-year contract extension earlier this week, was flawless, giving the home crowd at Enterprise Center no reason to get excited, with 27 saves. It was the second time in the past three years that he opened the season with a shutout.
Matt Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek and Marco Rossi added goals for the Wild, who were dominated for long stretches in the second period, but gave the Blues’ offense nothing to record on the scoreboard.
Hartman seemingly picked up right where he left off last spring. After an up and down regular season — which included an eight-game suspension handed down by the NHL — a year ago, Hartman was like a new player late in the season. He averaged a point per game in the playoffs, and returned to Minnesota earlier than normal this summer, determined to have a solid training camp.
After a back and forth first 15 minutes which saw St. Louis kill a pair of Wild power plays, Minnesota’s offense got cranking with two goals 96 seconds apart.
First Hartman settled a bouncing puck with his hand and cut to the Blues net, tucking the puck between the knees of St. Louis goalie Jordan Binnington for Minnesota’s first goal of the season.
Two shifts later, in a scene Wild fans hope to see much of in the forthcoming 81 games, Kirill Kaprizov set up in the right faceoff circle and zipped a centering pass to Boldy, for a deft re-direction and a 2-0 lead at the first intermission.
The worst news to come out of the first period happened in the final seconds, when Minnesota winger Marcus Foligno blocked a Dylan Holloway slap shot. The puck appeared to glance off Foligno’s hand, and the Wild veteran dropped his stick and skated to the tunnel. He returned for the start of the second period and appeared no worse for wear.
The Blues had all of the second period momentum, out-shooting Minnesota 14-5 for the frame, and getting a pair of power plays, but emerged in an even deeper hole on the scoreboard. The Wild’s first shot on goal of the period, more than 12 minutes in, went in the net when Eriksson Ek cleaned up a mess in front of the Blues net with a power play goal.
Late in the period Hartman slapped a low shot between Binnington’s skates, and St. Louis skated off after 40 minutes to the sound of boos from the home crowd.
By the time Rossi’s close-range wrist shot made it 5-0 with 12:33 to play, a fair amount of the audience had already headed out into the chilly Missouri night. Kaprizov, signed last month to the richest contract in NHL history, assisted on three of the Wild’s goals.
Binnington finished with 16 saves for St. Louis.
It was the NHL debut for Hunter Haight, the 21-year-old from Ontario who was Minnesota’s second round draft pick in 2022. Haight spent all of last season with the Iowa Wild and was second on the team with 20 goals. He was the first one on the ice Thursday, skating the traditional rookie solo lap before the rest of the Wild came out for warmups.
The Wild return to St. Paul for their home opener on Saturday, hosting the Columbus Blue Jackets in a 7 p.m. first faceoff at Grand Casino Arena.
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