John Carlson scored two goals to propel the Tampa Bay Lightning to a 3-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday at Benchmark International Arena.
Tampa Bay built an early advantage with two goals in a 36-second span during the opening period. Anthony Cirelli tipped in a shot from Erik Cernak at 5:26 for his first goal of the season. Carlson followed at 6:02 with a wrist shot set up by Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point to double the lead.
Minnesota responded early in the second period when Quinn Hughes scored on a wrist shot at 2:32, assisted by Bobby Brink and Jared Spurgeon. Carlson restored Tampa Bay's two-goal cushion at 4:55, firing a slap shot on the power play with assists from Kucherov and Jake Guentzel. The Wild pulled back within one at 14:01 of the second when Blake Coleman beat the goaltender with a power-play wrist shot, set up by Kirill Kaprizov and Hughes.
Dennis Hildeby earned the victory in goal for the Lightning by stopping 34 of 36 shots. Minnesota goaltender Jesper Wallstedt made 32 saves on 35 shots in the defeat. Both teams converted once on the man advantage, with Tampa Bay finishing 1 of 3 and Minnesota going 1 of 2.
The victory extended Tampa Bay's winning streak to three games, improving their regular-season record to 3-1-0. Minnesota moved to 2-1-1 on the season and has gone winless in two consecutive contests.
Both clubs return to action on Tuesday, October 20. The Wild will visit the Edmonton Oilers, while the Lightning will visit the Vegas Golden Knights.
