NEW YORK — The celebration started long before puck drop, with the Rangers rolling out a blue carpet to honor former longtime goaltender Henrik Lundqvist by retiring his jersey.
But the Wild crashed the party, rallying for a 3-2 victory on Friday at Madison Square Garden for its fourth straight win and seventh in its last eight games.
After blanking on a penalty shot in the second period, Frederick Gaudreau received a real-time breakaway in the third period and this time he converted at 1 minute, 49 seconds to resolve a 2-2 tie.
This comeback by the Wild came on the heels of an emotional pregame ceremony that included speeches, special guests and the memorable scene of Lundqvist's famed No. 30 rising to the rafters. And the Rangers seemed galvanized by the display, getting down to business in a hurry with two first-period goals.
The first came at 8:47 when Barclay Goodrow was left all alone in front to snap the puck into a mostly empty net with Wild goalie Cam Talbot caught to one side.
Then, with 2:52 left in the first period, the Rangers doubled their lead after Chris Kreider scored his league-leading 31st goal, burying a loose puck with a backhander from behind his back.
Jacob Trouba picked up his second assist of the period on the play.
But momentum changed in the second.
Kevin Fiala peeled away from a defender to open space where he one-timed in a Ryan Hartman feed at 12:18 for his eighth goal during a career-best 10-game point streak that is tied for the second longest in Wild history.
That run is also tied for the longest active point streak in the NHL with Mats Zuccarello, who had the Wild's second goal only 1:29 later after capitalizing on a point shot on the power play to also extend his career-high stretch to 10 games. He and Fiala are the third set of teammates to tally a 10-plus game point streak in the NHL this season, and they're only the fourth and fifth Wild players to post a double-digit point streak.
This was Zuccarello's first point against the Rangers in his third game vs. his former team; the winger broke into the league with New York and played parts of nine seasons with the Rangers before getting traded to the Stars and then eventually signing with the Wild.
Zuccarello's goal was set up by linemate Kirill Kaprizov, who now has a point on the power play in three consecutive games for the first time in his NHL career. Kaprizov has 10 points during his six-game point streak and 18 in his last 10.
Before Fiala and Zuccarello scored, Gaudreau blanked on a penalty shot 2:56 into the second period. The attempt was the Wild's first since Nov.6, 2017, at Boston when Mikael Granlund was unsuccessful against the Bruins' Tuukka Rask. Overall, the Wild is 17 for 37 in penalty shots.
But Gaudreau would make no mistake on another 1 vs. 1 look with Rangers goaltender Igor Shesterkin in the third period, burying his third goal to tie his career high from 2018-19.
Fiala and Zuccarello earned assists on the play; for Zuccarello, that sealed his sixth straight multi-point game, the first time a player has accomplished that in Wild history.
