MONTREAL -- Joel Eriksson Ek had two goals and the Minnesota Wild came out on top of a low-scoring affair Tuesday, besting the host Montreal Canadiens 3-1.
Eriksson Ek opened the scoring early, tapping a fortunate bounce off the end wall past Canadiens goaltender Jake Allen just under six minutes into the contest. Eriksson Ek would later add an insurance marker into an empty net with 31 seconds left in the game. The Swede led all Wild forwards with 20:29 of ice time.
Eriksson Ek's linemate Brandon Duhaime also recorded a pair of points for the visitors. It was Duhaime's wrister that bounced off the end wall to Eriksson Ek in the first before he added his own goal in the second period, his second of the season, to mark his first multi-point contest of the campaign.
2️⃣nd point of the night for Dewey 1️⃣#mnwild pic.twitter.com/hta4tfERSt
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) October 26, 2022
Cole Caufield stayed hot for the Habs in the middle period, burying his fifth goal of the season on a wide-angle shot that found its way past Wild netminder Marc-Andre Fleury to tie the game at one apiece.
Fleury turned aside 26 of the 27 shots he faced on the evening, earning just his second win over the season in five tries. He carried an ugly 5.25 GAA and .847 save percentage into the contest.
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Allen took the loss for the Canadiens, but was strong in making 28 saves on 30 shots.
Montreal defenseman Jordan Harris posted a game-high 25:39 of ice time while Wild forward Matt Boldy paced all skaters with eight shots on goal.
Both clubs went 0-for-3 on the power play while the Wild out-hit the Canadiens 19-10.
Tuesday marked the second of a five-game road trip for the Wild. They took a 4-3 overtime loss in Boston against the Bruins to kick off the trip on Saturday. They travel to Ottawa for a 6 p.m. game on Thursday.
After back-to-back home losses, the Canadiens will start their own four-game road trip Thursday when they take on the Buffalo Sabres.
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