The first four minutes of the game were shotless, with the Habs only putting up one shot attempt to the Wild's five. The Wild broke the ice with the first shot of the game 4:26 in, an easy shot that Mike Condon absorbed to freeze the play.
The Habs were starting to build up an attack, after generating their second shot attempt seven minutes into the first period. The Wild were dominating in possession, up 12-7 in shot attempts before their thirteenth found the back of the net on a bad turnover by Mike Condon who came out of his net to the hashmarks to distribute the puck and missed his target, instead feeding the puck right to Nino Niederreiter who put it past Condon to put the Wild up 1-0.