Ryan Hartman scored twice, Filip Gustavsson made 27 saves for his 12th NHL shutout and the Minnesota Wild beat the St. Louis Blues 5-0 on Thursday night in the opener for both teams.
Matt Boldy, Joel Eriksson Ek and Marco Rossi also scored, and Kirill Kaprizov had three assists in his first game since signing an eight-year, $136 million contract. Gustavsson played days after agreeing to a five-year, $34 million contract extension.
Hartman and Boldy — who also had two assists — scored late in the first period. Hartman connected from the edge of the slot with 4:06 left and Boldy had a tip past Jordan Binnington with 2:30 to go.
"The main stress we had was getting ourselves a win in our first game, and now we get to go home and try to get a win at home and a home opener," Hartman said after the game. "But I like how we played you know. I feel good personally, legs-wise and speed-wise, so I wanna just keep going."
Eriksson Ek scored on a power-play rebound with 7:33 left in the second period for his 300th career point. Hartman added his second goal with 2:24 left in the period, beating Binnington from close range.
Rossi scored off a rebound at 7:26 of the third.
"It feels like the game was so fast out there," Gustavson explained. "It's still like it hasn't slowed down in your brain yet. I had some good bounces, their goal had some tough bounces today, and you know, that's that's how you win sometimes. But the shots that hit me, they got blocked or covered for me."
Up next
Columbus Blue Jackets (0-1, in the Metropolitan Division) vs. Minnesota Wild (1-0, in the Central Division)
Saint Paul, Minnesota; Saturday, 7 p.m.
BOTTOM LINE: The Minnesota Wild host the Columbus Blue Jackets after Ryan Hartman's two-goal game against the St. Louis Blues in the Wild's 5-0 win.
Minnesota had a 45-30-7 record overall and a 23-18-3 record in home games last season. Goalies for the Wild averaged 26.7 saves per game last season while allowing 2.9 goals per game.
Columbus went 40-33-9 overall and 14-23-4 in road games a season ago. The Blue Jackets scored 3.3 goals per game last season while allowing 3.3 per game.
INJURIES: Wild: None listed.
Blue Jackets: None listed.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.