Wild stuns again with choice in goal for Game 2

Minnesota Wild’s Marc-Andre Fleury surrendered four goals on 31 shots en route to a 4-0 defeat in Monday’s Game 1 versus the St. Louis Blues.

The veteran goalie was called out for giving up juicy rebounds which was a major contributing factor to the game’s lopsided final score.

On Wednesday morning, ahead of Game 2, fans expected Cam Talbot to get the nod against St. Louis later tonight.

However, head coach Dean Evason announced on KFAN1003 that Fleury would be in between the pipes to face the Blues again.

This is surprising seeing that many fans expected Talbot to get the start for Game 1 before the series began. Talbot went on a 13-0-3 run to end the regular season and hasn’t lost a game since the month of March. Talbot looked better than Fleury down the stretch, although how much of that had to do with Fleury adjusting to the Wild’s system of play is debatable, and finished the season with a 2.76 goals against average and a .911 save percentage over 49 games played for the Wild this season.

However, Fleury was brought in with his Stanley Cup championship pedigree and is likely to step up his game as the series goes on. But he needs to get the win tonight.

If not, the Wild will have to switch gears and trust Talbot. A healthy competition between the 2 goaltenders will likely serve to push them both to greater heights than they would have achieved on their own, but this is going to be a difficult juggling act for Wild head coach Dean Evason as he heads into the playoffs.

Let’s see what happens tonight in Game 2.