Walz powers Wild

Montreal 1 0 1 -- 2

Minnesota 1 2 1 -- 4

First Period--1, Minnesota, Laaksonen 5 (Brunette, Walz), 9:21. 2, Montreal, Markov 2 (Rivet, Gilmour), 10:14. Penalty--Sekeras, Min (interference), 14:34.

Second Period--3, Minnesota, Walz 7 (Laaksonen, Marshall), 1:57. 4, Minnesota, Walz 8, 5:26 (sh). Penalties--Blouin, Min (slashing), 4:05; Savage, Mon (interference), 8:55; Traverse, Mon (cross-checking), 10:51; Walz, Min (intereference), 12:59; Van Allen, Mon (hooking), 15:32.

Third Period--5, Montreal, Van Allen 3 (Juneau, Brisebois), 2:16. 6, Minnesota, Zholtok 9 (Park, Gaborik), 8:50. Penalties--Gilmour, Mon (hooking), 11:00; Bombardir, Min (tripping), 14:12.

Shots on goal--Montreal 6-4-7--17. Minnesota 7-13-14--34.

Power-play Opportunities--Montreal 0 of 4; Minnesota 0 of 4.

Goalies--Montreal, Hackett 3-5-1 (34 shots-30 saves). Minnesota, Fernandez 8-10-2 (17-15).

A--18,568 (18,064).

Referee--Jay Sharrers. Linesmen--Thor Nelson, Pierre Racicot.

ST. PAUL (AP) -- Minnesota center Wes Walz doesn't consider himself an offensive threat.

Don't tell that to the Montreal Canadiens.

On Tuesday night, Walz had two goals, one short-handed, as the Wild beat the Canadiens 4-2.

The win avenged the Wild's 4-0 loss last month at Montreal -- where Minnesota coach Jacques Lemaire spent his career as a player and two seasons as a coach.

"We were looking to get that game back," Walz said. "We let our coach down and we wanted to make sure we had a good one tonight."

Lemaire, who coached his 600th NHL game, said he was depressed after the first meeting at Montreal. After telling his friends there how good his expansion team in Minnesota was, the Wild put on a less-than spectacular performance.

"I told them, 'We'll give you a better show tonight."'

That they did.

Minnesota outshot Montreal 34-17 and held the Canadiens to 0-for-4 on the power play. Walz, who said his primary job is to play defense, scored his first goal at 1:57 of the second on a 3-on-1 break when he faked Jeff Hackett clear out of the goal and flipped a shot into the net to make it 2-1.

Then, with Sylvain Blouin in the penalty box, Walz led a 2-on-1 break and shot the puck past Hackett to make it 3-1 at 5:26.

"He probably played the best game I've ever seen him play," Lemaire said of Walz. "With the puck, without the puck, offensively, defensively ... I don't think he made a mistake tonight."

Montreal hung around in the third period but couldn't pull off the rally. The Canadiens climbed within 3-2 when Shaun Van Allen took a pass from Joe Juneau from the bottom of the left circle and spun around to shoot it past Manny Fernandez at 2:16.

"When they scored that goal we kind of sagged and were back on our heels," Walz said.

But Minnesota's Sergei Zholtok padded the lead at 8:50 when Richard Park, skating down the center, dropped the puck back for Zholtok, who chipped it in off the post.

"That was huge," Walz said. "That allowed us to play a little bit looser and gave us more room."

"We knew we had to come out strong in the third period," Montreal's Craig Rivet said.