Wild end 5-game losing streak in 5-2 victory over Canucks

Chris Miller, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Nov 1, 2025

Published in Hockey

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ST. PAUL, Minn. — A five-game losing streak — the past four on home ice — hung over the Minnesota Wild like a candy corn hangover Saturday night at Grand Casino Arena.

The visiting Vancouver Canucks were reeling the night after Halloween without a half-dozen injured regulars, including superstar defenseman Quinn Hughes, and seemed like the perfect foil for the Wild to get back on track.

It wasn’t easy. The Canucks muddied the waters with an effective defensive style before the Wild broke away in the third period and escaped with a 5-2 victory.

Vladimir Tarasenko scored a goal and added two assists for the Wild before an announced crowd of 17,216. Drew O’Connor had both goals for Vancouver, which had a 28-27 edge in shots on goal.

How it happened

The Wild scored the only goal of the first period after what looked like a harmless power-play rush. Matt Boldy’s head-man attempt was pinballed by two defenders but popped up knee-high to Joel Eriksson Ek. He batted it toward the goal and Tarasenko swooped in from the left wing, corralled the puck and backhanded it past Canucks goalie Thatcher Demko with four minutes remaining in the period.

O’Connor tied it 5:34 into the second period on a 3-on-2 break that started after Wild defenseman Zeev Buium got caught being a bit too fancy in his offensive zone.

O’Connor led the rush and fed MacKenzie MacEachern, who drove the right side and had his shot kicked out by Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson. The puck went directly to O’Connor flying down the slot and the former Dartmouth standout buried it.

Marco Rossi restored the one-goal edge eight minutes later, popping in the rebound of Tarasenko’s right point shot at 13:49. Rossi, who won a faceoff to start the play, extended his point-scoring streak to five games (two goals, five assists).

Vinnie Hinostroza put the Wild up 3-1 four minutes into the third, dancing through the neutral zone to create a 2-on-1 with Yakov Trenin. Hinostroza took the shot from the edge of the left circle and it glanced off Demko’s glove and into the net.

The goal was the first of the season for Hinostroza.

Demko mishandled Jonas Brodin’s shot from a sharp angle 90 seconds later it banked off the Vancouver goalie and into the net, making the score 4-1.

O’Connor’s second goal, at the seven-minute mark, was on a right side 40-foot wrist shot that eluded the glove of an unscreened Gustavsson.

Demko came out for an extra attacker with four minutes remaining in the game, and Wild center Ryan Hartman hit the empty net on a 170-footer from beside his own goalie at 16:43 to make the final 5-2.

Stars sidelined

The Canucks played without Hughes, their captain, who won the Norris Trophy as the NHL’s top defenseman two seasons ago; he has a lower body injury.

Vancouver’s leading scorer, right winger Conor Garland, also was sidelined because of a lower body injury.

Also on the injury list for the Canucks were forwards Filip Chytil, Teddy Blueger, Jonathan Lekkerimaki and Nils Hoglander; and defensemen Derek Forbort, Victor Mancini and Guillaume Brisebois. Blueger played college hockey at Minnesota State and Forbort at North Dakota. Chytil and Mancini were the NHL players acquired from the New York Rangers at the trade deadline last season in a deal that sent J.T. Miller to the Rangers.

Wild coach John Hynes scratched rookie center Danila Yurov, who has one goal in 10 games and is a minus-6 while averaging slightly less than 10 minutes time on ice. Ben Jones replaced Yurov in the lineup and played his 32nd NHL game; he’s still without a goal or an assist.

Up next

The Wild finishes a six-game homestand when they play host to Nashville on Tuesday.

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