Going up against the league’s worst team, the 20-win San Jose Sharks, the Wild were hunting two points in the standings. They got them, but it took an offensive outburst and overcoming defense lapses to get there with an eventual 8-7 overtime win that also included a combined six goals from two returning starts.

Here are five rules from the Wild’s second overtime victory this week:

1. Kirill Kaprizov returned to the lineup for the first time since Jan. 26 after a lower-body injury, and he scored a power-play goal.

At the first stoppage of play, Kirill Kaprizov stepped onto the ice for the ensuing faceoff. Downtime in the game, but the Minnesota fans offered loud cheers for the winger playing in just his fourth game since Christmas.

Kaprizov scored a power-play goal late in the second period to tie the game 4-4. It was a snipe from down low after he tried earlier on the man advantage to fire the puck toward the net and perhaps get a tip from a teammate.

After the game got to overtime, Kaprizov got a feed from Mats Zuccarello and finished the crazy game with a blast from a similar spot on the ice for his 10th overtime winner. Game over.

“It was not our best defense game,” Kaprizov said. “But it’s nice win. We take these two points.”

2. Joel Eriksson Ek also returned to the lineup after being out injured since the 4 Nations Face-Off. He scored a career-high four goals.

Joel Eriksson Ek stole the show with a career-high four goals. His first goal was part of a chaotic couple of minutes in the six-goal second period. Then he scored three consecutive tallies with 11.9 left in the second period and 1 minute, 2 seconds into the third period – both on the power play – to complete his first hat trick since Feb. 19, 2024 against Vancouver.

He added goal No. 4 only 1 minute, 4 seconds later. The first three goals were all classic Eriksson Ek – rebounds and crashing the net, scoring from around the blue paint. The last one was a feed from Matt Boldy, who assisted on three of Eriksson Ek’s goals, that found him in the slot.

“Good bounces,” Eriksson Ek said. “They chirped me, or Hartzy (Ryan Hartman) did, that they were all in the crease, so the fourth one was a little bit better.”

Eriksson Ek’s season goal total went from nine to 13 for the season in 43 games played. He joined Marian Gaborik as the only two players in franchise history to score four-plus goals in a single game.

3. Matt Boldy had a four-assist game.

Four assists pushed Boldy’s season total to 30 and 71 points. Four helpers in a game also marks a career-high for the winger, tied for the second-highest single-game total in Wild franchise history. Kevin Fiala has five assists on April 22, 2022 vs. Seattle.

Boldy played on the top line opposite Marcus Foligno and Eriksson Ek at center. Boldy praised Foligno’s play in the last few games they’ve been on a line together.

“And then you got Ekky,” Boldy said. “I don’t think anyone can take the puck from him. He’s a beast.”

4. It was Marc-Andre Fleury’s night… until it wasn’t.

This was supposed to be a celebratory night in a very sentimental way for goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and the Wild. He made likely his final start at home in the regular season Wednesday. It could have been another wonderful moment during his farewell tour. But not all these moments can have a fairytale ending.

The Wild had a 7-4 lead in the third period before three straight Sharks goals, including one of the final minute to tie the game and force overtime.

“As a goalie, those aren’t the most fun games to play,” Fleury said. “You know, too many goals going in.

“I think I’ll remember the national anthem and having two points.”

The best moment of the night for Fleury was taking his spot in between the pipes prior to the game. His three children joined him in the crease during the national anthem.

“I think it’ll be good memories for me, for them, right?” Fleury said. “Just to be on the ice and see what it feels like to be there and having all the people around.

“That was pretty cool.”

Fleury made 24 saves in the game, including a vintage windmill save in the second period, which generated a few “Fleury! Fleury! Fleury!” chants from the crowd.

After Kaprizov ended the game in overtime, a few Wild players mobbed Fleury near center ice. It was also the 70th overtime win for Fleury, which passed Martin Brodeur (69) for most in NHL history. Fleury is 13-9-1 this season, marking his 19th winning season of his career; only Brodeur has more with 20, according to NHL Stats.

5. San Jose is the worst team in the league, but the Wild engaged in a back-and-forth battle with the Sharks.

The Wild, which has struggled in recent weeks to put the puck in the net in the opening period, found itself down 1-0 about 12 minutes into the game. Then the Wild led 2-1, 3-2 and 5-4, taking one-goal leads into both intermissions. In between, the Wild also trailed 4-3 in the third period before those two power-play goals from Kaprizov and Eriksson Ek late in the second period.

In the third, the Wild were up 7-4 a couple of minutes into the period on Eriksson Ek’s fourth goal of the night. But the Wild had defensive lapses throughout the game, and the Sharks celebrated a Macklin Celebrini hat trick and eventually tied the game.

The Wild scored a season-high eight goals, needed every one to get two points.

“I would say from a defensive standpoint, it was uncharacteristic of us tonight in certain areas,” said Wild coach John Hynes. “Some of the things, we’ll address them and tighten up.”

The post Rink Rule: Sharks vs. Wild appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

That play, however, is the exact reason Faber belongs in the conversation for the Calder Trophy as the NHL Rookie of the Year. It’s also the reason why coach Dean Evason and his successor, John Hynes, have not hesitated to use the 21-year-old Faber in any situation.

A refresher on what happened: With Jonas Brodin and Jared Spurgeon out because of injury, Faber was in the midst of logging 2 minutes, 9 seconds of ice time in the 5-minute overtime, when he got caught in a puck battle behind his own net. This is where a mental error by an exhausted defenseman can bring a quick end to the game.

This came in a game where Faber was on the ice for a then-career high 30:08, a total that would have made Ryan Suter blush. But Faber didn’t make a mistake and made the play as if he was a Norris Trophy winner.

Hynes, coaching his eighth game at the time, marveled at what he had seen.

“He’s completely exhausted, but not only (gave) a second effort, he’s got the wherewithal to bump the puck back so we can gain possession and get a line change,” Hynes said. “I think if you look at just that one little component, that’s where we’ve been talking about not just his talent, but his mindset and mental ability to handle the minutes he has and situations he’s in.

The Wild prevailed with a 3-2 win in the shootout and had their latest reminder that a trade they likely didn’t want to make has worked out better than anyone could have expected.

Faber’s rights came to the Wild from the Los Angeles Kings, along with a 2022 first-round pick that was turned into standout left winger Liam Ohgren (Sweden), for the rights to restricted free agent Kevin Fiala on June 29, 2022.

Brock Faber has stepped in as a top defenseman with the void of Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin out with injuries. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Fiala had established himself as a valuable scorer in three-plus seasons with the Wild — 79 goals, including 21 on the power play, in 215 games — but the salary-cap strapped Wild weren’t going to be able to meet his asking price.

General manager Bill Guerin knew he had to move Fiala, but how was he going to get close to a quality return? Every GM he dealt with knew that Guerin wasn’t dealing from a position of strength.

Faber quickly adapted from college to pro hockey
Faber had been drafted by the Kings in the second round in 2020 before his first season with the Minnesota Gophers. A native of Maple Grove, Minn., Faber was a standout during his three seasons with the Gophers, but he has been nothing short of phenomenal since joining the Wild last spring after the Gophers suffered a shocking overtime loss in the NCAA championship game against Quinnipiac.

Faber signed with the Wild only hours after the defeat, played two regular-season games and was a regular on the blue line in a first-round playoff loss to Dallas. That was no small feat for a guy who had been playing college hockey only a few weeks earlier.

But what Faber has done this season is far more eye-opening – especially with Spurgeon and Brodin having been lost for extended periods. Brodin had been Faber’s defensive partner before suffering an upper body injury on Dec. 8 when he was checked into the boards behind his net by Edmonton’s Evander Kane.

Spurgeon (out with a lower body injury), the Wild’s captain, was lost for the second time this season only two days after Brodin was lost. Hynes put Faber with Spurgeon’s regular defensive partner, Jake Middleton. Faber also was made the quarterback on the top power-play unit. Both have been seamless transitions.

“Being a young defenseman in the league is probably the hardest position to come in and have the responsibilities that he has,” Hynes said. “He’s been really consistent, he’s got the physical ability to play the minutes and style of game that he plays. He’s got the mental maturity to handle it, be consistent in his play and also recognize the situations he’s in in the moments of the game. Those are usually big ones, hard matchups, a lot of minutes. He’s done a really good job. He’s been impressive.”

Faber, like most hockey players, isn’t about to pump his own tires.

“I feel like when I’m clicking, I’m using my feet, making smart decisions and I’m clean on breakouts,” Faber told reporters.

The expectation is that Chicago Blackhawks center Connor Bedard will win the Calder. Bedard, the first pick of the draft last summer, headlines a hot-shot rookie class and led all rookie scorers entering Wednesday with 13 goals and 30 points in 33 games. He’s also a minus-15 in the plus-minus category playing for a bad team.

Faber entered Wednesday’s game against Detroit in a four-way tie for eighth in rookie scoring with two goals and 16 points and was a plus-10. Anyone who watches Faber on a nightly basis knows what a difference-maker he has been for a team that wouldn’t be 11-3, or turned its season around, under Hynes, if it wasn’t for the rookie.

National pundits have started noticing what Faber is doing and the minutes he is playing. He had been on the ice for more than 30 minutes in four of his past six games, entering Wednesday, and was 10th in the NHL in ice time (24:44). This included a season-high 33:25 in a 4-3 overtime win over Montreal on Dec. 21.

Hynes, who coached the New Jersey Devils for four-plus seasons and the Nashville Predators for three-plus seasons, was asked if he could compare a defenseman from his previous stops to Faber.

“Not as a young defensemen, in the way that he’s playing the game now, the role that he’s taken on,” Hynes said. “He doesn’t get sheltered. He plays against top lines, he plays hard minutes, he plays every situation.”

In other words, he’s the type of defenseman who is hard to find. Fiala, meanwhile, is second on a very good Kings team with 30 points (seven goals, 23 assists) in 31 games. The guess here is Guerin wouldn’t reverse the trade if given the opportunity.

Not with Faber looking like a guy who could be in the race for the Norris Trophy for years to come and the Calder Trophy this spring.

The post Faber Fits In appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

But not everything was as coach Dean Evason had hoped. Winger Brandon Duhaime had joined a list of injured forwards that already included Marcus Foligno, Jordan Greenway and Ryan Hartman. These are four of the Wild’s top sandpaper players and all were now out — replaced by the likes of Mason Shaw, Steve Fogarty and others whose ice time had gone beyond the expected.

So how much of a problem had this become?

“It’s not,” Evason said. “It’s exciting because you get to put people in opportunities to be successful. They all want to play. So you get an opportunity to place a guy in a spot that he wants, he’s hungry for. Clearly we don’t want injuries, we’d like to have everybody healthy. But it happens, it’s a physical game, so it’s going to happen. It’s exciting for us as an organization to see the progress, the development and the depth of our organization.”

The expiration date on Evason’s excitement might have come two days later as the Seattle Kraken shut out the lethargic Wild, 4-0, at Xcel Energy Center. The good news was the Wild had a four-day break to get players rested and healthy for a three-game West Coast trip that begins Tuesday against the Kings.

That c0uld be enough time to get Greenway, Foligno and Duhaime back. But the return of those three won’t erase the fact that if the Wild are going to come close to repeating the franchise-high 113 points they posted last season this team is going to have to make some decisions about how it wants to play.

Kevin Fiala is not only gone but needs to be forgotten as the Wild must find other ways to replace his production. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

The salary-cap related offseason trade of winger Kevin Fiala to the Kings cost the Wild a dynamic goal scorer. Fiala, who had three goals and 10 assists in 13 games entering the weekend, wasn’t in the superstar class of Kirill Kaprizov but he was a star, as evidenced when he went on a heater in which he was nearly unstoppable.

During a 33-game stretch late last season, Fiala had 19 goals and 28 assists and was a plus-20. That was playing on a second line with center Frederick Gaudreau and winger Matt Boldy. The Wild’s first-line of Hartman between Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello made shutting down the Wild a difficult task, at least in the regular season.

Minnesota finished 2021-22 averaging 3.72 goals per game, placing them fifth in the NHL. This season the Wild is averaging 3.09 goals in 11 games. That is 19th in the league.

The hope was that Fiala’s production would result in other players picking up the slack in the goal scoring department. That was an ideal thought but not realistic. Boldy is off to a strong start with six goals and four assists but he isn’t going to be able to replace Fiala’s goal scoring by himself.

The Wild’s reality is this: This team isn’t nearly as deep in the scoring department. The Kraken provided a good blueprint on how to beat the Wild by playing a disciplined game and focusing on slowing Kaprizov and Zuccarello, who were no longer being centered by the slumping Hartman even before he got hurt. Hartman, who was injured in a fight against the Blackhawks on Sunday, had a career-high 34 goals and 65 points in 2021-22, stats he is unlikely to repeat.

Gaudreau had moved into the center spot on the Wild’s first line — a clear indication of the quality depth lacking at that position on the roster — but he was taken off in favor of Boldy in the third period. What Evason is going to have to hammer home with this team, no matter what line combinations he uses, and no matter who returns from injury, is that there is only one way to play.

Players like Freddy Gaudreau can’t let themselves get caught up in “keeping up with the Kaprizovs.” (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

As the Wild struggled to open the season, there was talk of the team trying to find its identity and not yet knowing what it is. That’s nonsense. The identity of this team must be hard work by the many players who aren’t talented or skilled enough to get away with anything else. Kaprizov, who had 47 goals and 108 points last season and already has eight goals and 13 points this year, remains one of the NHL’s best and Zuccarello is an elite-playmaking winger.

But the majority of this roster is made up of players who should never fall into the trap of thinking they can play Kaprivoz or Zuccarello’s game. Gaudreau, a player in whom Evason has great faith, has gotten too cute at times when playing on the first line. The scoreless first period on Thursday featured only four shots by the Wild and Kraken goalie Martin Jones got the 22-save shutout despite the fact he gave up numerous juicy rebounds that the Wild failed to pounce on by driving to the net.

Even Kaprizov and Zuccarello got caught in the trap of trying to be too flashy in the Wild’s 2-1 loss last Saturday in Detroit. Afterward, Evason lamented that his players had gone away from their identity.

“We haven’t done the spin-o-ramas, we haven’t done the throwing pucks from behind the net (in a 3-0-1 stretch that followed the 0-3 start),” Evason said. “We’ve got to get it to the top, and we run our routes in the offensive zone and cycles, and we get opportunities from that. We don’t get opportunities by being a cute hockey team. We’re grit with skill. And we thought that we were just skilled tonight.”

The Wild might have been able to get away with this approach, at least for long stretches, when Fiala was around. But his departure has altered this team’s makeup and the sooner everyone realizes this the better.

The post Cute Won’t Cut It appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Marcus Foligno and his Minnesota Wild teammates once again find themselves with plenty of time to ponder what went went wrong in the postseason. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Instead of using home-ice advantage to get past St. Louis before taking their chances against Colorado, the Wild bowed out in the opening round for the sixth time in seven years. The other time, 2018-19, Minnesota failed to qualify for the postseason.

It wasn’t shocking the Blues, who won the Stanley Cup in 2019, eliminated the Wild, but it was shocking how they did it. After taking a 2-1 lead in the series with a near perfect road performance in Game 3, the Wild got sloppy in dropping Game 4, fell apart in the third period of Game 5 at Xcel Energy Center and didn’t bother to show up in Game 6.

It was what you would have expected from the Wild team that included Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, Jason Zucker and others. But they had all been cleared out by one-year-and-done general manager Paul Fenton and his replacement, Guerin. All season long everyone associated with the Wild, from the front office to the players, talked about how tight this group was and how much different everything felt with the locker room lawyers long gone.

This team was likeable and had leaders who seemed to care more about the final score than their ice time. That’s what made the end so hard to stomach. The Wild had spent all season thriving when adversity hit and, yet, in the opening round this roster didn’t look any different from so many that had gone before it.

And, now, as well as this group got along en route to setting franchise marks in wins (53), points (113) and goals (310) it will suffer at least one, if not more, key departures. Guerin’s decision to clear Parise (not surprising) and Suter (a shocker) out of the locker room last July by buying them out, enabled several players to have more important roles both on the ice and in the locker room. The gamble was the buyouts — which amounted to a reasonable $4.7 million in 2021-22 — now will result in three years of massive salary-cap headaches for the Wild.

The dead cap hits will be $12.7 million next season and $14.7 million each of the next two years. The NHL salary cap for 2022-23 will be $82.5 million, meaning it’s slashed to $69.8 million for the Wild. That leaves Guerin with only $8.18 million of available room as the offseason begins and that’s not enough to field an entire roster.

If Guerin faced this dilemma coming off a run to the Western Conference Finals, or better yet, the Stanley Cup, the problem wouldn’t be nearly as daunting because the success would have been so great. No matter how you spin the Wild’s regular-season success, the end was a huge flop.

Is Marc-Andre-Fleury one-and-done in Minnesota? (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

It’s fair to wonder who still will be in a Wild jersey when training camp opens in September. Guerin said at his season-ending press conference on Tuesday that he would like to re-sign veteran goalie Marc-Andre Fleury and wants Cam Talbot back as well, despite the fact Fleury starting the first five games of the postseason didn’t sit well in the Talbot household.

Nonetheless, it won’t be surprising if both stick around.

It will be a surprise if winger Kevin Fiala isn’t moved. The Wild’s second-most talented winger behind Kirill Kaprizov, Fiala had a career-high 33 goals and 85 points in 2021-22 and was brilliant late in the regular season. Fiala’s point total was the second-most in a single season for the Wild, trailing the 108 that Kaprizov produced in a magnificent second season in the NHL.

That came with Fiala playing for $5.1 million and headed into restricted free agency for a second consecutive summer. This is likely the offseason that Fiala is going to get paid on a multiyear deal and, for a while, there were many who thought Guerin should pay that price by jettisoning defenseman Matt Dumba and whoever else had to go in order to keep the Wild’s second-best goal scorer.

That was before the postseason. While Kaprizov had seven goals on 27 shots in six games, Fiala had no goals on 15 shots with three assists and a team-leading 16 penalty minutes. He also was a minus-5. Fiala has one goal in his past 13 playoff games for the Wild, dating to last season’s seven-game first-round ouster by the Vegas Golden Knights.

Fiala should be able to fetch the Wild a far more substantial return than Dumba or anyone else who would be subtracted from the payroll. Teams that have been linked to Fiala in rumors include Ottawa, New Jersey, the Islanders and Vancouver. A high draft pick or big-time prospect, or both, could put Guerin in position to have a player under team control while the Wild are battling cap issues.

“There’s uncertainty,” Guerin said on Tuesday. “I mean, we’d love to have Kevin back. I don’t know if it’s going to be possible.”

Guerin rarely lacks a plan, so he likely knows exactly what he will do when it comes to Fiala. There are other players from this feel-good regular season who are probably headed out the door as well.

The fact these moves have to be made isn’t a surprise. Everyone saw it coming. But the fact they have to be made after another disappointing first-round loss in the postseason is another story.

The post Déjà Blues appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Wild winger Kirill Kaprizov started his 2021-22 campaign fresh off a five-year, $45 million deal and then didn’t find the back of the net on the ice in the month of October. Wild fans who were nervous about the superstar’s early lack of production can look back on that and get a good chuckle.

Mats Zuccarello, one of several Wild players to have career seasons in 2021-22, created magic with Kirill Kaprizov for a second straight season. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

His linemate Mats Zuccarello said in mid-November that someone told him Kaprizov was “squeezing his stick.”

“He’s still got a lot of assists and played really good,” Zuccarello said, after Kaprizov scored a goal and three assists against Dallas on Nov. 18.

Kaprizov turned in the best single-season performance in Minnesota Wild franchise history. His 47 goals, 61 assists and 108 points all bumped him to the top of the list among Wild players.

Call him Kirill the Thrill or Dolla Bill Kirill, either way, he’s a superstar on this Wild team. He wasn’t done dazzling in the regular-season finale either, when he skated circles around the Colorado Avalanche before passing the puck to teammate Tyson Jost for a goal.

“Yeah, it was a great play by him,” Jost said, following the game. “I mean I’ve seen him do enough for however long I’ve been here, for 20 games. It seems like he does that every single game. I was just battling in front and kind of knew that if I got open, he was going to find me. He made a great play.”

Jost, acquired from Colorado by the Wild for Nico Strum ahead of the NHL trade deadline, isn’t the first player to talk about Kaprizov like this and his ability to feed teammates. Frederick Gaudreau was the benefactor of such a play during a Nov. 18 7-2 victory over Dallas. That time, it was a behind-the-back pass from Kaprizov. Gaudreau said afterward that there’s a good chance Kaprizov knows where you are on the ice, even if it doesn’t seem like it.

It seems almost trite to refer to Kaprizov as the superstar of this Wild team. But he’s lived up to that and then some. Of the long list of franchise records broken this season, Kaprizov’s name is on 10 of those records, along with tying two more individual records.

He was the leader of a 2021-22 Wild team that also is the best one in history, setting records for most wins in a season with 53 and most points in a season with 113. The Wild (53-22-7) edged out the St. Louis Blues for the No. 2 spot in the Central Division and gained home-ice advantage when the two teams face each other in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs this week.

The Wild re-wrote the team record book by tying or breaking 39 individual and 40 team franchise records this season.

(MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

It was a year where teams tried to get back to some kind of normalcy within a pandemic but still saw players go down at various times under COVID-19 protocols. The Olympic break built into the NHL schedule was canceled, making for a whirlwind finish with games every couple of nights or back-to-back for the final two months. The Wild finally got to host the Winter Classic on New Year’s Day, to the tune of way-below-zero temperatures at Target Field.

Still, the Wild found a way to win games with goaltending, depth and a league-best nine multi-goal comeback victories. It was quite the regular season and one that should be remembered fondly for all the highlight-worthy goals and performances. Regardless of what happens in the playoffs.

Can fans enjoy some entertaining hockey games over the course of the season, and still be disappointed if the team fails to win a Stanley Cup or make it past the second round of the playoffs? Yes. Both things can be true.

Besides Kaprizov, the Wild got breakout performances from many players on the roster this year. Let’s start with his linemate Zuccarello, a 34-year-old NHL veteran with nearly 700 career games under his belt. The pair’s chemistry on the ice this year was evident throughout, and Zuccarello shattered his career-highs in assists (55) and points (79) for the season. He set three franchise records, including a record for the most consecutive multi-point games with six from Jan. 24-28.

The center for that top line – Ryan Hartman – is one of the best steals for his production. He signed to a three-year, $5.1 million extension last spring. His first two seasons with the Wild, his goal total failed to reach double-digits. He nearly quadrupled his goal output last year (51 games) and nearly tripled his points when he scored 34 goals, 31 assists for 65 points this season, reaching career-high marks long ago. Early on, he led the team with his four goals in October and finished the year second in goals. A bit of a surprise and definitely falls in the unsung hero category of this year’s team.

With work ethic to match his puck wizardry Kevin Fiala’s value has skyrocketed this season. Can the Wild keep him? (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

The Wild don’t only have offensive power on the top line, of course. The next biggest name is winger Kevin Fiala, where the chatter surrounding his name this season has gone from “He’s going to be traded, the Wild can’t afford to keep him” to “Man, what are the Wild going to do? Because they *have* to keep him?”

One of his latest bodies of work was a franchise-record five-assist game in a 6-3 victory over the Seattle Kraken on April 22. His four assists in the second period alone also set a record.

“Everything I touched went in, it felt like, especially in the second period,” Fiala said after that game. “So it was a nice game.”

He finished second on the team in points behind Kaprizov and third in goals and assists with his 33-52—85 season. All of those numbers shattered his career-high numbers, too. He’s also gotten hot at the right time lately, setting a franchise record for most points in four consecutive games with 4 goals, 9 assists for 13 points from April 17-22.

Fiala and Hartman also tied for the team lead with seven game-winning goals this season, which is part of what makes Fiala such a special part of this offense. It’s not just the numbers that he’s put up but the type of plays and clutch goals he’s scored or assisted on.

Rookie sensation Matt Boldy injected instant offense into the Wild lineup when he was recalled in January. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

On Fiala’s opposite wing is rookie Matt Boldy, who added his name to plenty of rookie franchise records this season after joining the team in Boston on Jan. 6. He scored one of his 15 goals this season in that NHL debut and added 24 assists along the way, too. It was clear right away that once Boldy was called up, he wouldn’t be going back down to Iowa.

Gaudreau has impressed centering Fiala and Boldy. Then there’s the tough GREEF line of Jordan Greenway, Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Foligno. The defensive core and goaltending contributed to the various team franchise records as well.

But for all the fanfare around individual milestones and franchise records, it’s not something Wild head coach Dean Evason and the Wild focused on. What they did talk about was how hard it can be to make the playoffs in the NHL, Evason said following the team’s 3-2 overtime victory over Calgary on April 28.

“It’s a grind,” Evason said. “It is an absolute grind.

“So, no, we’re not reflecting on anything. We stay with what we do, and that’s game-by-game and day-by-day. That’s our mentality and we’ll continue to do that through the playoffs.”

Cheers to the 2021-22 #mnwild regular season! Take a look at the many franchise records that were broken this season: pic.twitter.com/fE5ZsRbHGu

— Minnesota Wild PR (@mnwildPR) April 30, 2022

The post Thriving on Thrills appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Why? After all, that excellence has been the result of having a superstar in Kirill Kaprizov, a sniper in Kevin Fiala, a deep blue line corps and a solid goaltending duo that includes an All-Star in Cam Talbot. And that’s just the start.

This would cause the majority of fan bases to have a sense of bravado, especially with their team set to return from the All-Star break with a 28-10-3 record (59 points) and a win percentage (.720) that is second in the Western Conference to the Colorado Avalanche (.773).

But longtime Minnesota sports fans know better. Waiting for something to go wrong is a part of their existence. Fortunately, this team isn’t led by the usual suspects who seem predisposed to the sense of dread that often accompanies the type of success the Wild have experienced.

General manager Bill Guerin has won four Stanley Cups, including two during his playing career, and Dean Evason’s calm and confident approach behind the bench only serves to embolden a roster that has gone from self-centered to overflowing with leadership.

It seems too good to be true — there’s that paranoia again — but that’s the interesting thing. From the Guerin to Evason to the locker room, this collection has little interest in playing the, “what could go wrong card” and is far more focused on, “why not us?”

The Wild will return from the break on Tuesday by facing the Jets in Winnipeg as they begin to make up games that were postponed because of COVID-19 and play a portion of the schedule that initially was supposed to be a hiatus for the Olympic break. The Wild is one team that should feel no disappointment from the NHL’s decision to forego participating in the Games. The chance to get back to work as soon as possible is far more important.

The Wild have tied the 2016-17 team for the best first-half performance in franchise history and the team is on pace for a franchise-record 118 points. Minnesota finished with a franchise-best 49 wins and 106 points in 2016-17, but was dispatched by the St. Louis Blues in five games in the opening round of the playoffs. That came during a stretch where the Wild made the playoffs for six consecutive seasons but lost in the first round four times.

Minnesota Wild coach Dean Evason has been pushing all the right buttons since taking over from Bruce Boudreau nearly two years ago. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

The same thing happened last season as the Wild’s success in a pandemic-shortened year — one in which Kaprizov won the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie — still ended in a first-round playoff loss to Vegas, albeit in seven games. But this version of the Wild feels different. Zach Parise and Ryan Suter were both bought out by Guerin in the offseason and the locker room sounds like it’s a very different place. After almost every victory, Evason raves about the chemistry of this team and how well it works together.

It’s hard to argue considering the team’s point production. There also is a major difference with how this group handles adversity. Where once the Wild seemed to be a group that loved to create crisis, it’s now a collection of players who are nearly unflappable and relish the opportunity to overcome the difficult.

Down by a goal or two late in the third period? No problem. The Wild have scored an NHL-leading 12 goals this season with the goalie pulled in the third period. 

There was a feeling the Wild might be headed for one of their annual funks when they lost their fifth in a row in the Winter Classic against the Blues on New Year’s Day, but that has been followed by the team’s second point streak of nine games or more this season. The Wild will face the Jets having gone 9-0-1 in their past 10. Minnesota is third in the Central Division, one point behind Nashville and nine behind Colorado. The Predators, however, have played five more games than the Wild and the Avalanche have played three more.

“It’s very fun,” said Fiala, who has points in 12 consecutive gams to match Mikael Granlund’s franchise record from 2017. “We’re winning, it feels like all the time, you know. We’re confident we’re going to win every game no matter who we play. It’s still early to say because we’ve got 40 games to go, but I have big confidence in this group that we can go all the way, for sure.”

Kaprizov got off to a slow start after signing a five-year, $45 million contract just before training camp. But those struggles are long forgotten and the first-time All-Star leads the Wild with 19 goals and 53 points in 40 games. Kaprizov already can be called the best player in franchise history and the gap between him and Marian Gaborik gets wider by the game.

Kaprizov also was outstanding as a rookie before accumulating only two goals and three points in the Wild’s playoff loss to Vegas. The Golden Knights focused on Kaprizov, taking away his time and space, and that was a big part of the reason they advanced.

But that’s where Guerin has built what looks like a different team.

The Wild goes four lines deep and winger Matthew Boldy’s impact playing with Fiala since he was called up from Iowa of the AHL has turned Fiala from frustrated to fantastic. That also enables the Wild to use the line of Joel Eriksson Ek between Marcus Foligno and Jordan Greenway as a true third line. Eriksson Ek deserves to be in the discussion for the Selke Trophy given how effective he has been in shutting down the opposing team’s top center.

Guerin lost defenseman Carson Soucy to Seattle in the expansion draft and saw Ian Cole sign with Carolina as a free agent after providing needed leadership on and off the ice last season. Those looked like two potentially big losses. Instead the Wild signed Dmitry Kulikov, Jon Merrill and Jordie Benn and haven’t missed a beat when it comes to depth and production at the position.

Now for the bad news, or at least a dose of reality.

There is no guarantee of a happy ending to this story. The Avalanche are the favorite of many to win the Stanley Cup and the way they have been playing will do nothing to change that. At some point, it’s almost certain the Wild will have to go through Colorado. For longtime NHL fans in Minnesota, it feels a bit like the 1983-84 season, when the North Stars won the Norris Division by 17 points but were bounced in the conference finals by the high-flying Edmonton Oilers.

Of course, that’s coming from a longtime follower of Minnesota sports and someone who is usually bracing for the Wild, Twins, Vikings or Timberwolves to suffer an unfortunate demise. These Wild don’t seem to think like that and, in this case, that’s one of the best things this team has going for it.

The post “Why Not Us?” appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Fiala had three penalties called on him in a span of 4 minutes, 27 seconds in the second period. He was called for holding the stick and twice for tripping. Washington scored four seconds after Fiala’s first infraction as Evgeny Kuznetsov blasted a shot past Kaapo Kahkonen to give the Capitals a 2-0 lead.

Fiala’s third penalty left Wild coach Dean Evason so upset that he planned to bench the talented winger for the final period. This would have been drastic no matter what the situation, but on this night the Wild was down eight skaters because of COVID-19 or injuries. Among the forwards missing were wingers Kirill Kaprizov, Brandon Duhaime, Jordan Greenway and Nick Bjugstad and center Joel Eriksson Ek.

Kevin Fiala sprints toward teammate Mats Zuccarello to celebrate Zuccarello’s tying goal late in the third period of Minnesota’s 3-2 shootout win over the Washington Capitals on Jan. 8, 2022 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Nonetheless, Evason’s plan was to have Fiala glued to the bench. That changed when Fiala asked to speak with Evason during a timeout. Evason already had seen Fiala cheering for his teammates, and now Fiala was telling his coach that he knew what he had done wrong and that not playing wouldn’t stop him from supporting his team.

“That meant a lot,” Evason said. “Maybe that’s another step in his development. … We were fully prepared to not play him again. But everybody gets second opportunities or more. … If you’re going to say it, let’s give him an opportunity to prove it. And he did.”

Fiala’s first shift of the period came about nine minutes in. He ended up getting the second assist on Mats Zuccarello’s tying goal with 34.7 seconds left in the third, and scored in the shootout as the Wild rallied for a 3-2 victory.

This was Fiala in a nutshell. Drawing the ire of his coach one period, his praise the next. 

There were more than a few who scoffed when former Wild general manager Paul Fenton said Fiala was “electric” and had “the ability to be a game-breaker” after acquiring him from Nashville for Mikael Granlund in February 2019. Fenton was fired that summer, but he has gotten the last laugh when it comes to Fiala. At least on some nights.

Longtime hockey fans will remember former North Stars forward Kent Nilsson, who was known as “The Magic Man” because of the tremendous skills he could show. But Nilsson, who also played for Atlanta/Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers, had the ability to disappear at times.

Fiala, 25, can do the same. Catch him on a good night and you will see a player who is second only to Kaprizov on the Wild when it comes to skill. Catch him on a bad night and you will see what the 19,078 at Xcel Energy Center witnessed in the second period Saturday. 

No one is more familiar with the two sides of Fiala’s game than Evason. The latter coached the former for parts of three seasons in Milwaukee of the American Hockey League, when both were members of the Nashville Predators organization. Fiala had 36 goals and 89 points in 121 games for the Admirals.

Fiala was reunited with Evason when he arrived in Minnesota after scoring 10 goals with 32 points in 64 games with the Predators in 2018-19. Evason had been hired to be an assistant coach on Bruce Boudreau’s staff the previous summer. Evason replaced Boudreau as head coach in February 2021.

Even after all of those seasons together, it’s clear that things are often not smooth between Evason and Fiala. There’s a respect between the two, but Evason is aware that Fiala possesses a lot of talent and that he often needs to be reminded to use it.

Kevin Fiala (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Fiala is fourth in scoring on the Wild with 23 points, including seven goals, in 33 games this season. His 108 shots rank third on the team behind center Ryan Hartman (112) and Kaprizov (110). But Fiala’s 6.5 shooting percentage tells the story of what often has been a hard-luck season and one that comes at a terrible time.

That’s because Fiala is playing on a one-year, $5.1 million contract that he agreed to last summer in order to avoid arbitration. The Wild had been the ones to file for arbitration against Fiala, showing they weren’t eager to do a long-term deal. Fiala will be an RFA again this offseason before becoming eligible for unrestricted free agency.

The question is will he ever get to that point while wearing a Wild jersey? Fiala’s name is usually one of the first that comes up in trade speculation involving a team that is going to have significant salary cap issues for the next three seasons because of the Zach Parise and Ryan Suter buyouts.

Wild general manager Bill Guerin could look to move Fiala before the March 21 trade deadline, if he wants to acquire a center for his team. There also is the chance that Guerin will try to move Fiala this offseason as he looks to make more changes to the roster. It was Fenton who coveted Fiala, and Guerin has shown a willingness to make bold moves if he thinks they will improve his team.

Fiala would draw interest. He had 43 goals, including 15 on the power play, and 94 points in 114 games over the two pandemic-shortened seasons in 2019-20 and 2020-21. Several teams could use that type of production, even if it comes with an occasional headache at times.

For now, Fiala will continue to dazzle on some nights and disappoint on others. As Evason has learned, it’s part of the Fiala Experience.

The post Vanishing Act appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Facing elimination for the second game in a row, the Wild outlasted Vegas in a tight-checking, no-one-wants-to-make-a-mistake Game 6 on Wednesday night at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. The Wild broke through the scoreless tie for a trio of third-period goals on the way to a 3-0 victory and their second shutout of the series.

“It’s an elimination game, and those types of games are just a game of mistakes,” said forward Ryan Hartman, who scored his second goal of the series Wednesday. “It’s who’s going to budge first.”

Not only did the Wild score three goals in front of 4,500 home fans, they completed a couple of pretty plays in the process. Early in the third period veteran Zach Parise, playing in only his third game of the series after sitting as a healthy scratch, got the first scoring play started. At center ice, he thread the needle perfectly for teammate Kevin Fiala, bouncing a pass off the boards toward Fiala who entered the zone with Hartman on the other side. Fiala finished the play with a cross-ice pass to Hartman who made no mistake roofing the puck over a sliding, tumbling Marc-Andre Fleury.

The Wild then held the all-important 1-0 lead.

The Wild have won three games in this series. Goaltender Cam Talbot has been a major factor in all of them. That might sound a bit obvious, considering he’s the goalie and teams in the playoffs need a good goalie to advance. But Talbot has two shutouts this series (1-0 in overtime in Game 1), and he hasn’t given up a few of those fluky, back-breaking goals like Wild fans have grown accustomed to seeing in the past from other netminders.

According to NHL Stats, per Minnesota Wild PR on Twitter, Talbot recorded the first shutout at home in franchise history a game the Wild faced elimination.

Vegas forward — and Wild nemesis — Alex Tuch gets a bird’s-eye view of one of Cam Talbot’s 23 saves en route to shutting out the Golden Knights. Photo by Rick Olson for MHM

Talbot didn’t necessarily steal Game 6, but he came up with big saves when needed and stopped all shots. Can’t ask for much more than that. One thing that’s been a factor in this series is quick answers when a team scores (some pucks in the net didn’t count, but that’s another story). About two minutes after the Wild made it 1-0 Wednesday, Talbot slid to his left and followed the puck along the ice to hold the lead for his team.

Talbot credited his teammates in front of him for helping the Wild to play what he called “probably our most complete game of the series.”

“I’m just trying to go out there and play my game and give us a chance to win,” Talbot said. “So I’m just playing behind an elite group in front of me.”

He’s a goaltender with a calm demeanor and doesn’t get too animated, Hartman said.

“He makes saves look easy, and he gets over for the hard ones as well,” Hartman said. “ We love having him back there for confidence.”

A couple of minutes after that big save for Talbot, Vegas center Chandler Stephenson fired a shot through traffic that landed in the Wild’s net. But Alex Tuch was clearly in the blue paint. The official signaled goal before the official call on the ice was no-goal. Vegas challenged, and this time was unsuccessful. So, the goaltender interference battle is all even and forgotten now, right Wild fans?

The Wild also didn’t have a power-play goal this series. Even when the home fans begged for calls, the Wild didn’t do much with any chances given. That tide also turned Wednesday with the delay of game penalty on Vegas following the no-goal call.

With about 10 minutes to play in the third period and the man advantage, Fiala took a feed from Jared Spurgeon and bounced a long shot toward the net and through Fleury. He was pretty pumped in his celebration, a much different look than last game when he broke his stick over the net in frustration at his lack of goal production. His first goal of the series didn’t come until Game 6, but it was a sigh of relief.

Still, there was a lot of time left for what some might dub the “worst lead in hockey” at 2-0. But the Wild sealed their fate to play another day with 4 minutes, 43 seconds remaining in regulation. The speedy Nico Sturm worked along the boards to feed a pass to Nick Bjugstad in the offensive zone after he got by the Vegas defense. Bjugstad skated through the slot and patiently scored with a backhander as Fleury flopped and tumbled on the ice.

The Wild didn’t let Vegas get a chance at any comeback momentum. It was 3-0 at the final horn with Wild fans cheering and waving their rally towels.

“I think the players deserve a lot of credit for just believing, and believing in each other, and I think that’s been the key – not just in the playoffs, it’s been key from Day 1 with this group,” said Wild coach Dean Evason.

Nick Bjugstad’s breakaway goal past a sprawling Marc-Andre Fleury sealed Minnesota’s Game 6 victory over Vegas. Photo by Rick Olson for MHM

If the Wild are going to pull off a series victory, they’ll do it having overcome a three-games-to-one deficit. It might not mean much to the current roster of Wild players, except maybe Blaine native Bjugstad, but the Wild has been in this spot before. The 2003 squad surprised the hockey gods by overcoming two 3-to-1 deficits against Colorado and Vancouver.

No, this 2021 Wild team has nothing to do with the 2003 team. Yes, Wild fans are free to relive those fond memories in order to hold out hope that this year their favorite team can watch another Wild opponent blow a 3-1 series lead.

“We don’t know the results in a couple days, but we know that we’re in it,” Evason said. “We know we can compete. We know we’re going to battle. At the end of the night, we’ll see where we sit.”

The winner faces an awaiting Colorado Avalanche team that should be pretty rested after its sweep of the St. Louis Blues. The jottings have been noted about Vegas, still only in its fourth season as a franchise, being battled tested and playoff-tested. A trip to the Stanley Cup Final in its first year will provide that kind of clout.

A Vegas-Colorado matchup will make for some great hockey. Though nostalgic Wild fans know how fun the rivalry with the Avalanche can be. There’s 2003, of course. And Nino Niederreiter’s overtime series-clincher in 2014. Besides the playoffs, Colorado is the only team that’s remained in the same division as the Wild for Minnesota’s entire franchise history.

Colorado finished first in the division this season for a reason, however. It’s definitely the favorite to win the next series, no matter the opponent.

Getting there, Fiala knows, won’t be easy to overcome a 3-1 deficit.

“We’ve been through a lot this year,” Fiala said. “It’s been a weird year, you know. We stuck together the whole year.

“I have a lot of confidence in my group and guys, now let’s do it.”

The post Seventh Heaven appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The young NHL rookie has been a showstopper since game one this season, when he scored the overtime winner in Los Angeles.

He already had a pair of assists in his first NHL game when he pounced on a loose puck at neutral ice in overtime. He turned that into a breakaway with a nifty move in front before casually fluttering the puck past goaltender Jonathan Quick.

It was enough to make the veteran Quick glance over almost in disbelief at Kaprizov celebrating in the  corner.  

That goal and that game weren’t flukes.

Kaprizov’s dazzled ever since, with his skating abilities, unreal passes to set up teammates and a few highlight-reel goals of his own. The only real complaint might be that he can be too selfless with the puck at times. But that’s a hard argument to justify at the moment, when his playmaking abilities create some of the best chances and scoring opportunities, too.

He’s even found himself in the right place at the right time on broken-stick plays.  

Early in the second period of Saturday’s game against Los Angeles, Victor Rask fanned on a pass at the blue line. He later took a slapshot but broke his stick in the process. As the hockey gods would have it, the puck went right to Kaprizov.  

He didn’t miss the one-timer and made it a 3-0 Wild lead that eventually ended in a 4-3 Wild overtime victory on Hockey Day Minnesota as Matt Dumba scored as time expired.

“He’s an unbelievable player,” teammate Kevin Fiala said of Kaprizov, following Saturday’s game. “He does it every night on a consistent basis, and he’s very strong.”

Kaprizov can create havoc for the opposition, being hard to read with the way he opens up his hips, said Joel Eriksson Ek on Saturday.

“You don’t know which way he’s going,” Eriksson Ek said. “He’s super smart, too. He’s been great for us.”

Kaprizov’s sixth goal of the season and team-leading 17th point also brought him into some more history among Wild rookies. His point streak is up to five games with Saturday’s goal, bringing him into a four-way tie (Ryan Donato, Nick Johnson, Pascal Dupuis) for Wild rookies with the longest point streaks.

He also needed the fewest number of games to reach 10 points in the league among NHL rookies to debut with the Wild. He reached 11 points in 14 games (3-8—11).

On the current six-game winning streak for the Wild, Kaprizov had three consecutive multi-point games. He came into Saturday night leading the Wild and NHL rookies in assists with 11 and points, now up to 17 in 18 games.

It’s not only about the skill and scoring goals either, according to Fiala.

“It’s the work ethic,” Fiala said. “You see when he loses the puck, he gets it back. He does all the little things right now to make a skilled player. Just everything works.”

Taking a look back at some of Kaprizov’s other goals this season, there was a six-game gap between his first and second, coming Jan. 28 against the Kings.  

Already up 2-0 in the first period, Kaprizov tossed the puck from the top of the zone down into the corner. Marcus Johansson corralled it and made a heads-up centering pass to Kaprizov who made a beeline for the slot. The pass connected perfectly, and Kaprizov didn’t miss his chance to bury the puck, top-shelf.

It’s no secret the Wild’s power play has been abysmal this season, 5-for-63 and 30th in the league. But one of those power-play goals came from Kaprizov Feb. 2 in Colorado, the final game the Wild played before being shut down for two weeks because of a COVID-19 outbreak.

Already down 2-0 with a power-play chance in the second period, Kaprizov made himself wide open for a quick pass from Zach Parise behind the goal. The puck wasn’t on Kaprizov’s stick long as he fired the shot.  

Things really started to gel for the Wild starting with a pair of victories in Anaheim after the return to play with a near-full lineup. By Feb. 22 in San Jose, a new dominant line really took shape with Mats Zuccarello, Rask and Kaprizov.

The line already had a goal in the 1-1 game early when Rask started the next scoring play at center, dishing it off to Carson Soucy, who made a cross-ice pass to Zuccarello who then found Kaprizov right on the doorstep of the goal. All he had to do was have his stick on the ice for the tap-in, tic-tac-toe goal.

Kaprizov’s assists are about as fun to watch as his goals.

Take his assist on Ryan Hartman’s goal in Colorado to wrap up the recent road trip. Kaprizov took the puck into the offensive zone and battled 

along with boards with a defender right on him. Buying time, he eventually turned the other way and fired a brilliant pass toward the goal and a streaking Hartman who finished the play with a backhand goal.

Not only did Kaprizov keep puck possession along the boards when many players might get pushed off the puck or opt to simply dump it around the boards, but then he finished it off with a spectacular pass that connected through the opposing players.

The benefit of Kaprizov is more than the numbers he puts up, according to coach Dean Evason, who noted Kaprizov’s “team-first” mentality.

“How he’s as excited about somebody else scoring a goal or somebody else making a play as he is,” Evason said. “That’s what really resonates with us, and I think his teammates as well.”

Once the Wild finally returned to Xcel Energy Center for the first time in nearly a month, to face Los Angeles on Feb. 26, it was a battle of winning streaks. The Kings had won six in a row, the Wild four in a row.

The Wild weren’t intimidated and came out flying with a three-goal first period, scoring three goals in about three minutes. Kaprizov got it started.

Wraparound attempts to score a goal are fairly common. A player takes the puck behind the goal, maybe tries to fake one way but goes the other. The execution of the play is usually met with a goaltender’s pad save along the post.

Kaprizov rewrote the book on wraparounds with this particular tally. He had the puck behind the goal line, defended by veteran Drew Doughty. Kaprizov dished the puck out to the point for a Jonas Brodin shot, then took a rebound shot on goal. Denied, he grabbed his own rebound, when behind the net with Doughty on his tail and slid the puck into the net for the wraparound goal as he was falling to the ice. Quick was out of position, still trying to get his stick in the way on the other side of the net.

That goal opened the floodgates for the Wild. Nick Bjugstad and Eriksson Ek added goals. On each one of those, the FSNorth director immediately cut to a shot of Kaprizov’s reaction on the bench.

The spotlight is indeed on the 23-year-old.

“We knew as an organization that we were getting a special player. There was no secret there,” said coach Dean Evason after Friday’s victory. “We’ve all watched tape on him. Watched his abilities last year.

“He hasn’t disappointed.”

The post Kirill Delivers the Thrills appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Such is sports life amid a pandemic.

“I’ve said it before, it’s pretty brutal, playing with no fans, especially on what should be a fun, exciting, entertaining, opening night,” said forward Zach Parise. “You miss having the crowd and that noise, so we’re looking forward to getting some people in the stands here.”

In perhaps the most Minnesota touch of all, the sections of seats behind each of the team benches were filled with various high school hockey jerseys that are normally displayed around the suite level concourse.

The venue hasn’t mattered much so far for the Wild, who won their home opener 4-1 over the San Jose Sharks following a successful four-game California road trip.

It was essentially a one-goal game in the third before Kevin Fiala scored his first of the season into an empty net with 1 minute, 16 seconds to play. Jordan Greenway, who already had four assists to his credit this season, added an empty-netter from center ice with 26 ticks on the clock.

“I don’t think we started great, but we were able to battle through, got some timely goals and when it got down to crunch time, we were able to get the job done,” said defenseman Ian Cole.

The Wild called on Kaapo Kahkonen in to finish the second and third periods after Cam Talbot left with an injury. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

In the Wild’s net, it was Kaapo Kahkonen who earned the victory, having come in to start the second period after starter Cam Talbot appeared to be in discomfort after a play late in the first period. Talbot finished the period and skated out for the second before turning the net over to Kahkonen.

Coach Dean Evason didn’t have an update after the game but said indications are that Talbot’s injury isn’t serious. Kahkonen said he had an idea he might be going in, after seeing what happened to Talbot.

“It’s more mental, I think,” Kahkonen said, of his preparation. “It’s not easy, but you just have to be ready for anything when you’re a backup goalie in a game.”

Joel Eriksson Ek, the team’s leading scorer, added his third of the season to get the Wild going five minutes into the game. On the dynamic line with Greenway and Marcus Foligno, Greenway put a shot on net and Ek was in front to take care of the rest and jam home the rebound. But the Sharks tied it 1:11 later on a Matt Nieto goal.

Minnesota lads Parise and Nick Bjugstad, in his first year donning a Wild sweater, finally got their names on the scoresheet with Parise’s second-period go-ahead goal Friday. Things had lulled even the pumped-in crowd noise into a bit of up-and-down the ice routine in the second period when Parise fired a blast on the Sharks’ net. Goaltender Devan Dubnyk stuck his left leg out for the pad save.

But on the same shift, Bjugstad fired the puck on net from the slot. Dubnyk didn’t grab it cleanly, and Parise pounced in his office in front of the blue paint for his first goal – and first point – of the season. Both Parise and Bjugstad had zero points coming into the game.

Parise said he didn’t feel guilty about scoring a goal against his former teammate.

The Minnesota Wild and San Jose Sharks played in an empty arena Jan. 22, 2021. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

“He robbed me on that first one, so I guess we’re even because I don’t know how he kicked his pad out on that for what I thought was an open-net freebee,” Parise said.

That goal left the Wild heading into the second intermission with something they weren’t used to this season: A lead. They used comeback, overtime victories to win their first two games before getting shut out in their first game against Anaheim. The final game of the road trip was knotted at 2 apiece headed into the third, after the Wild had a two-goal lead.

The first half of the third period was pretty even, with the Wild not able to get much going on its third power play of the game. But really, not getting anything going on the power play has been the baseline for the Wild this season. They’re 1-for-23 in that category, although their first couple of games looked a lot better on the ice with the advantage than the stat sheet indicated.

The Sharks pressured a bit late in the game, but Kahkonen held his ground to get his second consecutive win in net.

Kirill the thrill

There was one other move that should make highlight reels, despite the result. By now the hockey world got quite the introduction to Kirill Kaprizov, who had one of the most storybook NHL debuts ever with his three-point game and overtime winner in the season-opening victory in Los Angeles.

Friday, he dazzled with a move with a little more than 9 minutes to play in the third. Taking the puck into the offensive zone fighting his way through a defender, Kaprizov made an in-between-the-legs move with the puck and fired off a shot. Dubnyk made the save, but it was still a play worth a double-take and a gasp at that talent from Kaprizov.

Dubnyk was impressed, too, and glad he made the stop.

“I can’t believe he made that move,” Dubnyk said. “It’s a nightmare when somebody makes a move that’s that slick and puts it in the back of the net, and then you’ve got 365 days to watch it over and over again on the highlights.”  

Devan Dubnyk returned to play against his old team in Minnesota. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Homecoming for Dubnyk

The Wild saw some familiar faces on the opposing bench. Dubnyk started against his old team for the first time. He propelled the Wild to some successful regular-season runs when he was acquired in a trade a few years ago. He finished his Wild career 177-113-28 with a 2.41 GAA and .918 save percentage in 328 games across six seasons from 2014-20.

Dubnyk took the loss to fall to 0-2-0 with his new team this season.

“I was a little fired up and overthinking stuff,” Dubnyk said. “I just wanted to give the guys a good chance.

“It would have been real nice to win, but it was nice to get it out of the way and feel like we played OK.”

Ryan Donato was also back to play his former team, though his stint in Minnesota was much shorter with his 18 goals and 39 points in 84 games across two seasons from 2018-20. Donato tied for a team-high five shots in the game but also ended up with a minus-3 next to his name.

Both Dubnyk and Donato received the video-tribute treatment on the videoboard at the arena for former players during breaks in the action.

The post Happy Wild homecoming appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.