Rossi has two goals, Wild net season-high three power-play goals to beat Nashville 5-3

By MIKE COOK The Associated Press

Minnesota Wild center Marco Rossi, left, celebrates his goal with teammates during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Nashville Predators Tuesday, Dec. 31, 2024, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Matt Krohn)[ASSOCIATED PRESS/Matt Krohn]

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Marco Rossi had two goals and an assist and the Minnesota Wild scored a season-high three power-play goals to beat the Nashville Predators 5-3 on Tuesday night.

Mats Zuccarello, Jonas Brodin and Declan Chisholm also scored for Minnesota, which won for the third time in four games. Joel Eriksson Ek had two assists and Filip Gustavsson made a season-best 43 saves and added an assist.

Colton Sissons, Jonathan Marchessault and Ryan O’Reilly scored for Nashville, which had a season-high 46 shots on goal. Justus Annunen stopped 33 shots.

Rossi scored with the man advantage in the third period for a 5-3 lead. Zuccarello and Chisholm had second-period power-play goals as Minnesota finished 3 for 6 with the man advantage. The Wild were 0 for 13 on the power play in their last five games and 1 for 17 in their previous eight. The Predators penalty kill entered the game tied for first in the NHL at 85.7%.

Takeaways

Predators: Nashville lost seven of eight December road games and is now 3-13-4 away from home. Only Chicago has more road losses with 14.

Wild: Minnesota lost another key player to injury. Leading scorer Kirill Kaprizov missed his third straight game with a lower-body injury, and captain Jared Spurgeon left early in the second period Tuesday with a lower-body injury.

Key moment

Spurgeon was injured when the defenseman was slew-footed by Zachary L’Heureux and crashed right leg first into the end boards. Spurgeon did not put any weight on the leg as he was helped off the ice by trainers. L’Heureux received a five-minute major and a match penalty.

Key stat

Minnesota won for the 15th time this season when scoring first, tying Ottawa, Toronto and Winnipeg for the second most in the NHL. Florida has 16.

Up Next

Nashville is at Vancouver on Friday night. Minnesota is at Washington on Thursday night.

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