Zach Parise Scores Winner, Wild Beat Canadiens

Early on in the season, the Minnesota Wild were off to a dismal start. It was so bad that they had a players-only meeting before the game against the Canadiens game today. Looks like that meeting seemed to have worked.

Zach Parise scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period and the Wild won their second game of the season, beating the Montreal Canadiens 4-3 on Sunday afternoon.

Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said about the rough start, "It's been a tough start for everybody...I love seeing the emotion on the faces, especially when it's good emotion."

Jason Zucker, Marcus Foligno, and Brad Hunt also scored goals for Minnesota. So far this season, these four goals are the highest goal total through eight games this season. They also scored four goals in a 7-4 loss at home to Pittsburgh, which was not their best night.

Devan Dubnyk got his first win of the season, making 29 saves.

Parise's go-ahead goal happened thanks to a perfect pass from Zucker through traffic and sent a shot that beat the Canadiens and give them a 4-3 lead. This came four minutes after Hunt had tied the game on a power play.

This was the second meeting in a four-day span for both of these teams. The Canadiens won the previous meeting 4-0.

It was a much-needed win after a mess to start this season. I don't know if that players-only meeting was necessary right now, but considering that they thought they would be in a good position to start the season, they had to do whatever they needed to create some energy and re-ignite that passion. As for Zach Parise, one of my favorite Wild players to watch, I'm hoping this goal will help him going forward this season. He hasn't been the same players of years past and I think it has really hurt the Wild.

Good win for the Wild and they get their second win of the season. Next up is the Oilers at home on Tuesday night.