Staal fires two in Wild win

There are several veteran players who appear to have been given a new lease on a new National Hockey League club this fall.

Add Eric Staal to the list as the NHL veteran who had his struggles in Carolina and New York seems to to off to a good start in the Twin Cities with the Minnesota Wild.

On Thursday, Staal notched a pair of goals, including the game winner with 8:07 to play lifting the host Wild past the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

Staal’s goal was the second of the period as the Wild rallied back from a 2-1 deficit in the final 20 mintues. Zac Dalpe scored the tying toal 2:27 into the final period.

The other goals came in the second period, Roman Polak and Auston Matthews sandwiching the first Staal marker for the Leafs.

Devan Dubnyk made 31 saves to collect the win in goal for the Wild and Jhonas Enroth made his first start of the season, handling 24 of 27 in goal for the Leafs.

In the only other game involving Midwest based teams the St. Louis Blues fell for the first time this season 3-1 to the Edmonton Oilers at the Rogers Center in Edmonton.

The Oilers came into the game winners of three of its first four and continued its hot start to the season thanks in part to a 34-save effort from Cam Talbot in goal for the home side. At the opposite end, Jake Allen made his four appearance of the season for the Blues, handling 20 of 22.

After a scoreless opening period, the Blues got on the board as Nail Yakupov scored his second of the season against his former teammates with assists for Dmitrij Jaskin and Joel Edmundson.

Yakupov’s goal came at the 3:37 mark and Tyler Pitlick tied the score with his third of the season  a little less than three minutes later. The game winner came 36 seconds into the third period from Milan Lucic and Connor McDavid clinched it sinking his fourth of the season into and empty net with 38 seconds to play.

Friday Night games

The other three Midwest based teams will all be in action Friday (Oct. 21) night as the 0-2-0-0 Columbus Blue Jackets, now the only NHL team without a point on the young season will play host to the 2-2-0-0 Chicago BlackHawks at Nationwide Arena and the 2-2-0-0 Detroit Red Wings return to the Joe Louis Arena to play the 1-2-0-0 Nashville Predators.

Into the lineup tonight for the Blue Jackets is Lukas Sedlak, a 23-year-old center from Czech Republic selected by the Jackets in the Sixth Round (158th Overall) of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft. After three full seasons in the American Hockey League, Sedlak will make his NHL debut tonight and is expected to play between Boone Jenner and Oliver Bjorkstrand.

Last year Sedlak helped the Lake Erie (now Cleveland) Monsters to a Calder Cup Championship, picking up 18 points (14g, 4a) in 54 regular season games and another 16 points (9g, 7a) playing in all 17 playoff games.

With Marian Hossa sidelined, rooke Tyler Motte gets the dream assignment as the 21-year-old winger from Port Huron, MI will line up on the first unit alongside captain Jonathan Toews and right winger Richard Panik. At this time a year ago, Motte was beginnig his final season of play with the University of Michigan.

Both teams are starting their regular keepers — Sergei Bobrovsky patrolling the Blue Jackets’ crease while Corey Crawford stops shots for the BlackHawks.

In Detroit, the Wings have made a couple of changes, including the insertion of defenseman Ryan Sproul making his second career start and first since the 2013-14 season. He will be paired with Brendan Smith on the blue line while Steve Ott is being inserted in place of Andreas Athanasiou on the fourth line with Drew Miller and Luke Glendening.

The Wings will send Petr Mrazek to the crease for a fourth time this season against veteran Pekka Rinne in goal for the Predators.