Minnesota Upsets Boston in NHL Showdown

NEW YORK. Minnesota turned into Quinnesota last night.

Dream signing Quinn Hughes scored a delicious goal right away in his debut with the Wild.

– This will be exciting, says the back star after the 6-2 victory against Boston.

It’s been many years since a player trade caused as much uproar in the NHL as the one on Friday, when Vancouver unexpectedly sent its team captain and leading star Quinn Hughes to Minnesota in exchange for Zeev Buium, Marco Rossi, Sweden’s Liam Öhgren and a first-round pick in the summer draft.

Such times often result in anticlimaxes before those who have changed clubs acclimatise to their new surroundings, but Quinn Hughes was certainly not waiting to make an impression on the fans at the Grand Casino Arena.

He was brilliant in the night’s debut with the Wild , looking to develop instant chemistry with similarly bullish backcourt partner Brock Faber and capping the performance with the kind of goals only the most skilled do.

Modest about his effort

The 26-year-old American came right at the start of the third period trailing in an attack, got the puck from Ryan Hartman, took some delicious cuts into the castle and very characteristically whipped a gem behind Jeremy Swayman in the Boston box.

– Hartman hit a really good pass straight to me, he says modestly about his cone.

– This whole team is so impressive. Once I get used to it and get my legs going properly this is going to be so exciting.

For the fans, everything IS already exciting. The crowd in St Paul welcomed their new savior with a standing ovation already during the warm-up and when he scored his goal the arena absolutely exploded.

– I did not expect those reactions, it was very special, smiles Hughes.

Took fourth straight

Overall, the Wild put in an excellent performance against the Bruins, winning 6-2 and have thus secured four straight victories.

– I don’t know if it was because it was Quinn’s debut, but it felt like the whole team had “swagger”, says Swedish goalkeeper Filip Gustavsson, who himself stopped 29 shots.

Only smolken: Olympic current Marcus Johansson, who, like Joel Eriksson Ek, assisted a goal, was forced to cancel the match due to injury.

Coach John Hynes had no information last night about how serious the injury is or how long “Mojo” may be out.

Earlier on Sunday, the players who were sent the other way for Vancouver also debuted, away to New Jersey, and they did well too.

Especially young defender Zeev Buium had a successful afternoon in The Rock. First he assisted on the 1-0 goal Jake DeBrusk scored on a power play after just over a minute, then he was credited with the 2-0 goal Devils defender Brenden Dillon steered into his own box barely six minutes later.

It went a long way, because the Canucks won 2-1 – despite the Devils dominating the rest of the match.

– It felt like it was a good fit right away with the new teammates. Then I had the hockey gods on my side, says Buium.

Jesper Bratt assisted the home team’s only goal.

Noah Östlund scored his fourth goal of the season as Buffalo ended a long road trip west with a third straight win – and it was a nice one.

The 21-year-old from Stockholm got loose in a two-on-one situation with Josh Norris and together they clap-clap-played their way through the Kraken zone before Noah dunked the puck in.

In the end, the Sabers won 3-1.

For Pittsburgh, the nightmare from last night – when they lost a 1-5 lead against San Jose in the third period – continued in tonight’s home meeting with Utah.

This time they had a 3-0 lead when the final period started but were still beaten 5-4 – on an overtime goal by Dylan Guenther.

– You could think that things would change after yesterday, but they didn’t, says a sour Erik Karlsson.

He contributed an assist, just like Rickard Rakell.

Montreal squeaked by with a 4-1 victory against Edmonton at home at the Bell Centre, and Carolina beat Philadelphia 3-2 on penalty kicks.