Minnesota Wild up One in Stanley Cup Qualifier

Pretty cool when you have your backup goalie chalk-up a shutout and that being only the third in franchise history. With that, Alex Stalock and the Minnesota Wild take a 1-0 lead in the Stanley Cup qualifying game with a 3-0 win over the Vancouver Canucks.

The Wild rebounded after their exhibition loss to the Colorado Avalanche last week as one of the top defensemen in the NFL, Jared Spurgeon lit the lamp twice in Minnesota's first-round win Sunday. To get the night going Kevin Fiala got the Wild on the board first with a power-play goal right off the draw. Erick Staal came away with a pair of assists in the win.

So why did the Wild go with Stalock in net instead of Devan Dubnyk? Well according to Dan Myers writing for the Wild, Stalock had the better regular season. And not to take anything away from Dubnyk and his 26 games of postseason experience.

The best-of-five series continues Tuesday at Rogers Place in Edmonton.

Other winners in the NFL on Sunday:

Arizona 4 - Nashville 3
Philadelphia 4 - Boston 1
Colorado 2 - St. Louis 1
Columbus 2 - Toronto 0