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New-look Wild take down Jackets in season opener

Oct 9, 2011 - 3:42 AM St. Paul, MN (Sports Network) - Dany Heatley and Devin Setoguchi made winning debuts for the Wild, each scoring a goal Saturday night to lead Minnesota to a 4-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Heatley and Setoguchi were acquired from San Jose in separate trades during a busy offseason for the Wild, who also won their first game under new head coach Mike Yeo.

Matt Cullen and Marco Scandella scored the other Minnesota goals and Niklas Backstrom made 29 saves.

Heatley and Setoguchi are playing on a line with center Mikko Koivu, who had an assist on Setoguchi's goal in the second period. Heatley also assisted on the tally, giving their line four points for the game.

"He's a two-way centerman. He's not one-dimensional," Setoguchi said of Koivu. "The one thing he does the best I think is he's puck-hungry. If there's a loose puck he's trying to get it to you. And when he's doing it, everyone's doing it."

Derek Dorsett and Maksim Mayorov tallied for the Blue Jackets, who fell to 0-2-0. They dropped their opener, 3-2, to Nashville on Friday.

Steve Mason allowed four goals on 23 shots through the first two periods, while Curtis Sanford stopped all three shots he faced in the third.

Pierre-Marc Bouchard found a streaking Cullen with a pass in the slot, and Cullen scored through Mason's legs just 1:10 into the game. Scandella got behind the defense on a power play and beat Mason close on the right side to make it 2-0 with 3:40 remaining in the first period.

Heatley also scored on a power play, re-directing Bouchard's pass into the slot at 10:40 of the second period.

Dorsett got Columbus on the board, scoring from in close after Aaron Johnson threw a shot on net from the left side. But Setoguchi rifled a slap shot past Mason just 58 seconds later to make it 4-1 Minnesota with 1:09 left in the second.

"There's nowhere to point the finger. All 20 guys tonight were flat," said Blue Jackets forward Derek MacKenzie. "We weren't able to sustain any kind of pressure. We let their big guns kind of freewheel in our zone."

Mayorov scored the last goal at 16:38 of the third period.

Game Notes

The Wild acquired Setoguchi from San Jose Sharks in June for defenseman Brent Burns, also getting forward Charlie Coyle and San Jose's first-round pick in the deal. Less than two weeks later, general manager Chuck Fletcher shipped Martin Havlat to the Sharks for Heatley.