Quinn Hughes Helps Wild Snap Knights' Streak 4-2

Quinn Hughes keeps stacking points, and Minnesota keeps winning. The Wild defenseman picked up two assists Monday night, extended his season-opening point streak to six games, and helped Minnesota bury the Vegas Golden Knights 4-2 at Grand Casino Arena.

The Wild scored three times in the first period, killed off every Vegas power play, and improved to 4-1-1. Vegas fell to 5-2-0 and had its four-game winning streak snapped in St. Paul.

Three goals before the first intermission

Matt Boldy opened it at 11:50 of the first, burying his own rebound after the initial shot hit a Vegas defender in the slot. Hughes earned the primary assist and pushed a streak that is already tied for the sixth-longest season-opening point run by an American defenseman in NHL history.

Maxim Shabanov made it 2-0 on the power play at 14:32, wiring one through traffic from the top of the right circle for the first power-play goal of his career. Danila Yurov slammed home a backdoor feed from Bobby Brink at 16:57 to make it 3-0, with rookie Rieger Lorenz picking up the secondary assist for his first NHL point in his second game.

John Hynes praised the top line of Boldy, Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek afterward for tenacious, smart puck decisions across back-to-back strong games.

Vegas climbs back, Wallstedt holds

Rasmus Andersson cut it to 3-1 with a point slap shot early in the second, and William Karlsson finished a 2-on-1 with Brett Howden at 9:25 to make it 3-2. That was as close as Vegas got. Carter Hart stopped 24 shots, but Jesper Wallstedt answered with 21 saves and the Wild penalty kill went a perfect 5-for-5.

Eriksson Ek sealed it with an empty-netter with 1:22 left. Minnesota entered the night leading the league in both power-play percentage and penalty-kill percentage, and the special-teams edge showed again.

Scary moment for Sturm

Forward Nico Sturm took a puck up high off a Jared Spurgeon shot with 2:14 left in the first and did not return. He left slowly with help and was taken to the hospital as a precaution. Hynes and Wallstedt both referenced Brock Faber's preseason skull fracture, and the arena went quiet when Sturm went down.

Hughes' six-game opener is already tied for second-longest in Wild franchise history behind Andrew Brunette's seven. Minnesota fans will take the two points and hope Sturm's scan comes back clean. Vegas has to reset after letting a three-goal hole bury a hot start.