Anyone watching could undoubtedly see, and Wild defenseman Jake Middleton confirmed it after the game: The Wild (13-4-4) came out flying to start the game. They created scoring chances, pounced on rebounds and quickly turned the shots-on-goal category into a lopsided number.

The Jets (18-4-0) capitalized for a 4-1 victory that was not as lopsided as the score would indicate.

Here are five rules recapping Monday’s game:

1. Winnipeg goaltender Connor Hellebuyck stole the show.

The Wild could have easily taken a multi-goal lead only minutes into the game, but Jets goaltender Connor Hellebuyck didn’t let that happen. The Wild put up 22 shots on Hellebuyck in the first period, including a goal off the rebound from Middleton for a 1-0 lead. The Wild’s 22 shots on goal in the first period was the team’s highest single-period shot total this season. But the Jets tied the game 1 minute, 26 seconds later to create a stalemate that lasted until nearly halfway through the game.

The Wild were disappointed to not put a couple more pucks past Hellebuyck.

“But we threw a lot at him,” Middleton said. “That was probably the best first period we played all year, as far as not giving up shot opportunities and funneling pucks to the net.

“Tip your cap to Connor. He played really well, but we didn’t play the same game in the third.”

Hellebuyck improved to 14-10-2 in 29 career games against the Wild.

Connor Hellebuyck denies a shot from Wild defenseman Brock Faber. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

2. The Wild dominated play in the first two periods and shots on goal.

Unfortunately for the Wild, it doesn’t matter how many shots on goal you produce if they’re not going past the goal line.

“We threw the kitchen sink at him,” Middleton said, referring to Hellebuyck. “It’s disappointing. But there’s positives we can take from it.”

After peppering Hellebuyck with 39 shots through two periods, things tightened up in the third as the Jets held onto a one-goal lead. The Wild had only five shots on goal in the final period, finishing with a season-high 44. Sixteen of the Wild’s 18 skaters finished with at least one shot on goal.

“We had a lot of Grade-As, shot attempts, zone time, all those things,” said Wild coach John Hynes. “It kind of turned on a couple quick plays. Their second goal was something like that, and they got the power play later.

“That’s the story of the game.”

3. Kirill Kaprizov returned after missing a game in Calgary over the weekend.

Kirill Kaprizov returned to the lineup Monday after missing Saturday’s game in Calgary with a lower-body injury. He took a knee-to-knee, open-ice hit in last Thursday’s second period in Edmonton, although he returned to play the third period.

Kaprizov was back although he was held off the scoresheet for only the fourth time this season – twice now against the Jets. Kaprizov (13 goals, 21 assists this season) recorded five shots on goal in his 23 minutes on the ice, and he also had five shot attempts blocked.

“That’s what we expect when you have a guy like him in your lineup every night,” said Wild forward Matt Boldy.  “They’re going to put their best guys out there, and they did a good job tonight, but we’ve got to score goals.”

With the game tied 1-1 in the middle of the second period, Boldy fed Kaprizov a beautiful cross-ice pass while on the power play. Kaprizov fired a shot on goal but, as was the story of the night, was denied by Hellebuyck.

The Wild’s top player has garnered recent attention as one of the top points producers in the NHL so far this season. He came into Monday night’s game with a league-leading 12 multi-point games and 1.79 points per game.

Joel Eriksson Ek and Yakov Trenin get tangled up with Alex Iafallo in the Winnipeg zone, just before the Jets took a 2-1 lead at the other end. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

4. Nino Niederreiter continues to crush his former team.

Nino Niederreiter popped the game-winning goal in the second period for a 2-1 Jets lead. He also scored in the first meeting between the teams this year, a 2-1 Jets win in overtime back on Oct. 13. So, two of his eight goals this season have come against his former team where he spent parts of six seasons.

Niederreiter scored 110 goals and 228 points in 434 games wearing a Wild sweater from 2013-19. Including the two games this season and going back to the 2022-23 campaign, Niederrreiter has scored goals in seven of his last nine games against the Wild. He’s scored eight times and added two assists for 10 points in those nine games.

5. Jets fourth-liner Alex Iafallo reaches 100 career goals.

The University of Minnesota Duluth product, Jets winger Alex Iafallo, doubled his season goal total on Monday. First, he tied the game in the first period. On the Niederreiter goal, Iafallo didn’t show up on the scoresheet, but he tangled with Joel Eriksson Ek and Yakov Trenin at the other end of the ice. That left the Wild shorthanded during play, giving room for the Jets to take advantage.

Iafallo scored again with a power-play goal in the third period to give the Jets a two-goal lead. He deflected Neal Pionk’s shot through traffic.

“I barely touched it,” Pionk said. “That’s a great shot from up top, because we’re just talking about getting pucks to the net on power play right there, especially at the end. We need a goal to keep the momentum going.”

Iafallo reached the 100 career goals milestone and has four goals and eight points this season.

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

Niederreiter finds his niche again

To say Nino Niederreiter has gone through rough patches this season and last could be considered an understatement. He suffered a high ankle sprain in the third game of last season in Chicago, which seemed to linger and pretty much derailed his fifth campaign with the Minnesota Wild.

Then this year, back with a healthy start, he struggled to get on the scoresheet. Niederreiter was held scoreless for the first 14 games and added only six assists before his first goal on Nov. 8 in Los Angeles. The relief on his face when that red light flashed was quite evident.

“Just to see what he was going through at the beginning of the year, it’s tough,” said teammate and recent linemate, Zach Parise. “We’ve all been through it. It’s not fun.

“But now that just seems like a memory.”

That’s because Niederreiter finally found the scoring touch. He scored four goals in three consecutive games starting Dec. 7 in Edmonton and then contributed in a couple Wild offensive explosions in 7-1 and 5-1 victories against Montreal and Florida. He went from three goals on the season to seven in less than a week, plus he has 11 assists for 18 points before the Dec. 18 contest against San Jose.

The three-game goal streak was his longest since he had a career-best six-game goal streak last November. His two goals against Florida marked his 14th multi-goal game.

The recent success coincided with the success of his linemates, left-wing Parise, center Charlie Coyle and Niederreiter on the right wing. The roster got jumbled up a bit when an injury kept center Mikko Koivu out of the lineup for a few games.

Obviously, no one likes to be shorthanded in the personnel department, but Niederreiter seemed to relish the opportunity.

“It’s definitely a chance for us to step up and do good work,” Niederreiter said.

Against Montreal, each one of the trio scored a goal, at least one of them contributed to five-of-seven goals and their line combined for six points. It was a game where their line was clicking right from the first puck drop.

El Niño’s shots are finding the net with more frequency in recent games (MHM Photo by Rick Olson)

It was a dominant 7-1 win for the Wild to extend their winning streak over Montreal to eight games. And in a way, there was something to prove for the Wild, having just lost 7-2 in Edmonton a few days prior. They knew exactly what they had to do as a line, including bouncing back after the tough loss, according to Niederreiter.

“For us, everyone knew we needed a good start, and I think that’s what we had,” Niederreiter said. “Everyone was creating a lot of chances.”

He scored the first two Wild goals in the game against Florida, when their line combined for five points. Niederreiter was asked after the game why the line was clicking so well and he said it was a good question; he wasn’t sure. Though he did say there was another reason his game, in particular, looked so good lately: He’s been on the right wing.

“Probably staying on one side for quite some time, that definitely helped my game a lot,” Niederreiter said.

Both Parise and Coyle agree – and their opinion is probably a shared one – it’s great to see Niederreiter light the lamp lately.

“Nino’s a goal scorer,” Coyle said. “And he knows it, we know it.”

Coyle said he sees Niederreiter doing the little things like using his big body, winning the puck battles along the boards and doing things in the Wild’s own end to get the puck out. Those details are paying off, according to Coyle, who was also injured in that game last year in Chicago, leaving his season injury-plagued as well.

For Parise, he said Niederreiter is a guy that has to get to the net. With the goal drought early in the season, maybe Niederreiter just wasn’t getting to the spots he needed to in order to score.

“I think sometimes when it’s not going well for whatever reason, scorers drift away from the net,” Parise said. “And I think he started to do that a little bit.

“You look at the goals he’s got, the deflections and the stuff in front of the net, I think that’s where he does a really good job. I think he’s moved on from the start that he had.”

Maybe it can be a good point to really kick Niederreiter’s season into high gear after last year’s injury-riddled and disappointing campaign. After playing all 82 regular-season games the past two years (and 80 and 81 games before that), Niederreiter skated in just 63 in 2017-18, scoring 18 goals and 32 points. He still has some work to do this season if he’d like to become a 20-goal scorer for the fourth time in his career, but playing with Parise and Coyle the way things have gone lately is a good start to challenging his career-best 25 goals and 57 points his put up in 2016-17.

And wouldn’t fans just love to see more of this relaxed play from Niederreiter? Like the kind guy who scored three goals and three assists in the 2014 playoffs and scored the opening-round clinching goal in overtime against Colorado to advance.

“It’s great to see him doing well and producing and smiling and having fun playing again,” Parise said. “Because he can be a really effective player, and we need him to be an effective player.” 

The post Nino Steps Up appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Goaltenders rarely find themselves in the scoring column and have even fewer opportunities to take part in a goal celebration. Devan Dubnyk, however, accomplished both with 37 seconds remaining in the Wild’s 3-0 home win over Philadelphia, Dubnyk’s third straight shutout and second in four days against the Flyers.

Just 20 seconds after Eric Staal’s empty-net goal doubled Minnesota’s lead, Dubnyk corralled the puck behind his net and rimmed it up the boards to Jason Zucker who flipped a 150-foot shot into Philadelphia’s still-vacated goal. 

“It took me a second there to calculate it, but I realized that it came off my stick,” Dubnyk said of his fifth career assist and fourth in a Wild sweater. “So I thought I’d get in on the celebration with him since he was standing there.”

Devan Dubnyk has stopped 106 straight shots in compiling three consecutive shutouts. (Russell Hons / Russell Hons Photography)

Dubnyk’s stellar goaltending continued to be star as the Wild rolled to a third straight shutout win, including Saturday’s 1-0 blanking of the Flyers on the road. He stopped all 30 shots he faced on Tuesday, including 17 in the second period alone, to extend his shutout streak to a franchise record 195:05 dating back to Nov. 8 and eclipse his own mark of 183:16 set last season.   

“He’s seeing the puck right now, his reflexes are on fire, so we’ll take it as long as he can give it,” Wild coach Bruce Boudreau said.

“He made a bunch that seemed like empty-netters and all of a sudden his pad was just out there,” Zucker added. “He really kept us in the game. When you see how calm he is back there, and the way he’s making saves, it makes us play a different game.”

This follows a frustrating stretch in which Dubnyk was seemingly victimized on a game-by-game basis by fluky goals bouncing off everything and anything imaginable. The 31-year-old netminder was growing visibly frustrated by the daily misfortune.

Zucker said Dubnyk’s frustration was understandable and his teammates felt the same way.

“Sometimes those goals just happen, there’s nothing you can really do about it,” Zucker said. “It wasn’t like anyone was making crazy mistakes, they were just happening to go in.”

Nothing has been going in, however, since the third period of a 4-2 loss at Toronto last week which featured a pair of pucks pinballing behind Dubnyk who held the Canadiens scoreless the following night in Montreal.

“The biggest key for me is just finding pucks, make sure my feet are set,” Dubnyk said. “That kind of trickles down into everything else as far as moving around and rebound control. The guys are doing a good job of letting me see it and that certainly helps as well.”

When asked of he gave any thought to the shutout streak as the third period wore on, Dubnyk said it’s a luxury he can’t afford in a one-goal game

“When you get two and there’s a minute and a half left you start to think, ‘this would sure be nice if you could hang onto it,'” Dubnyk said. “And the guys did a good job in the last minute and a half there for me.” 

The streak is over

While Zucker scored his seventh goal in four games, his consecutive team goals scored streak quickly came to an end courtesy of linemate Nino Niederreiter. Celebrating his 400th NHL game played on Tuesday, Niederreiter one-timed an Eric Staal pass behind stunned Flyers’ goaltender Brian Elliott just 12 seconds into the contest. 

Nino Niederreiter tied a franchise record for fastest goal to start a game at Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday with a goal just 12 seconds into the Wild’s 3-0 win over Philadelphia. (Russell Hons / Russell Hons Photography)

“I told him I was sorry but I’m glad someone else than him scored finally,” Niederreiter said with a smile. “Obviously, we’d like to score as many goals as possible and he got on the board late which is great for him.”

Boudreau, too, was happy to see a new name on the score sheet.

“All year we’ve talked about we’re not a one-man team,” Boudreau said. “We don’t have a Wayne Gretzky out there so we have to do everything by committee. The previous couple of games, yeah Zuck had great games, but we need contributions from everybody to succeed.”

“I knew it was only a matter of time,” said a relieved Zucker. “We have too many good players for that to last even as long as it did, to be honest.”

The line of Staal, Zucker and Niederreiter got the start on Tuesday and scored all three of the team’s goals. Zucker leads the Wild in goals (9), points (14), power-play goals (3) and multi-point games (5).

“When you start a line, you’d really like that first shift to set the tone for the other shifts coming right behind,” Boudreau said. “Obviously, scoring in 12 seconds did that.”

Niederreiter has three goals and three assists in eight games since returning from a six-game absence due to a high-ankle sprain suffered on Oct. 12 at Chicago. The only Swiss-born player to net 20 goals in an NHL season is enjoying his time with his new linemates.

“We’re just trying to get the pucks to the net and right now they’re going in,” Niederreiter said. “I’m glad I’m playing with Zucks at the moment, I mean, he can’t miss so it’s fun.”

The post Dubnyk Celebrates In Shutout Win appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

St. Paul – As the Wild see-saw through the early season, they often are good and just as often are bad.

The optimist in me says, however, that they are showing signs of becoming a solid team.

Errors and turnovers have been a problem, part of an inconsistent stretch that was called out by both Devan Dubnyk and Eric Staal following Minnesota’s 2-0 home loss to the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday, Nov. 4.

“There’s no way in this league to win in spurts,” Dubnyk said. “It’s got to be every single game.”

Noted Staal: “The rhythm and what makes us successful, I don’t think we’ve been doing it consistently.”

Still, there are positive signs. You’ve got to like the way the Wild’s forecheck seems to be rounding into shape even without injured Zach Parise and Charlie Coyle.

And relative newcomer Mikey Reilly looks so far like a real find on the blue line: unflappable on defense and eager to jump into the offense. His play next to that of Jared Spurgeon and Ryan Suter offsets some of the deficits seen from the team’s other defenders.

Another favorable impression is the way Jason Zucker’s fast-break style often ignites great zone presence for the Wild offense. As well, rookie forward Luke Kunin exhibits some equally solid play not only on offense but by helping out in his own zone.

In addition — and maybe even more surprising — with Parise and Coyle sidelined, 30-year-old Chris Stewart has stepped up his offensive game.

Dubnyk might be the one guy who needs to stand out regularly. The good news: He has apparently shaken off what looked to be a little early shakiness in goal this season. He stopped 33 of 34 shots against Chicago, allowing just one goal on an extended Blackhawks’ power play. He and Alex Stalock appear to give Minnesota a formidable duo on net.

Add in an early showing of the same kind of stellar play supplied a year ago by Mikael Granlund, Mikko Koivu and Staal and you have reason to look forward to Minnesota’s next 70 games.

Coach Bruce Boudreau, seeing a glass more than half full, noted after the loss to Chicago that the Wild “could have won 11 out of those 12” early games on the schedule. The Wild were tied or ahead in the third period of all those games, he pointed out.

No one really believes Minnesota deserved to win even eight of its first 12, but Boudreau believes the 5-5-2 record is a little misleading. Occasional lapses have proved decisive, he said.

In addition, Wild shots have caromed off iron or landed behind opposition goaltenders and then been swept out of danger too often. Corey Crawford seemed to have a four-leaf clover in his gear as he picked up a shutout for the Blackhawks on Saturday despite the Wild jamming the net.

The effort was there, but the Wild were simply unable to nudge the puck across the line.

“We had our chances,” winger Nino Niederreiter said. “Good teams, they capitalize, and we didn’t.”

The eventual return of Parise and Coyle should help Minnesota’s cause in that department. The law of averages might be in the Wild’s favor, too. One thing is certain: Through a dozen games, there is no reason yet for Wild fans to panic.

The post Too Soon to Panic appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Minnesota’s two-goal lead morphs into 6-3 loss to Dallas

Saint Paul — When Jared Spurgeon got up Monday morning, he probably didn’t figure he’d be getting and giving Christmas gifts before the day was over.

But Spurgeon, who turned 26 less than a month ago, signed a four-year, $20.75 million contract extension with the Wild during the afternoon, then scored a dazzling, unassisted goal to open the scoring in Monday night’s game against the Dallas Stars.

However, a spectacular day for Spurgeon and the Wild unfortunately turned sour.

“A lot of emotions for him, for sure,” Wild coach Mike Yeo commented.

Spurgeon was called for a phantom trip that led to a power-play goal for the Stars to tie the score 2-2 with 1:30 left in the second period. And, as time was running down in the period, Spurgeon coughed up the puck and Tyler Seguin scored the go-ahead goal as the Stars came from behind for a 6-3 victory over Minnesota in front of 19,047 at the Xcel Energy Center.

Suddenly the Wild, who did not lose in regulation between Nov. 27 and Dec. 19, suffered their second consecutive regulation loss with just a game remaining before the Christmas break.

It shouldn’t be cause for panic – the Wild are 17-9-6 after 32 games – but the result removed some of the Christmas cheer from another standing-room-only crowd at the X.

“Disappointing,” Yeo said.

“It’s not the game you want,” Spurgeon observed.

Hardly.

Minnesota led 2-0 through one period plus 14 minutes of the second before the Stars scored four times in less than eight minutes.

“Definitely painful,” Nino Niederreiter said. “I felt like we had a really good first period and the second period we kind of pulled back a little, didn’t play quite as hard as we should have. And then they got a sniff when they got the first goal and they kept going and going.”

Yeo blamed the turnaround on a suspicious penalty against Mikael Granlund for what Yeo called “a clean check.” It put both teams a man short, and another penalty against Mikko Koivu 32 seconds later gave the Stars a four-on-three edge in skaters. The Wild survived the penalties, but any momentum they had was gone.

“It was a different game from that point on,” Yeo said.

Jordie Benn’s shot sneaked past goalie Devan Dubnyk at 14:59 of the second period to make it 2-1, and the questionable tripping penalty against Spurgeon came just 1:33 later, leading to the tying goal.

He was victimized again when Sequin made it 3-2 with 32 seconds left in the period.

Sequin was open and “buried it,” Spurgeon said. “A guy like that, you can’t let him get behind you.”

Even though Charlie Coyle and Niederreiter joined Spurgeon on the scoresheet and snapped out of goal slumps by scoring, the Wild were unable to recover. Niederreiter’s goal made it 4-3 after 10:26 of the third period, but two empty-netters ruined any comeback hopes for the home team.

The result certainly dimmed the mood for Spurgeon, who nonetheless managed to take a look at the big picture and explain why he decided to sign rather than become a restricted free agent after this season.

“You look at the guys in the room,” he said. “Just the feeling we have around here and the commitment the guys have to each other. I think we’re ready to win and I think this year we’re pushing toward that. It’s exciting to be a part of the Wild and I’m just thankful they gave me the opportunity to stay here.”

Yeo tried to also talk optimistically about his team’s future.

“We want to prove that we’re one of the top teams in the league,” he said, noting that although the Wild were unable to do that Monday, “lucky for us, we get another chance.”

The result left the Wild still chasing the Stars, who have a 25-7-2 record, going into Tuesday night’s pre-Christmas finale. And life does not get easier: They entertain the Montreal Canadiens, who lead the Atlantic Division with 43 points.

The post Spurgeon’s great day ends on rough note appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Minnesota blitzes Winnipeg with eight-goal barrage

SAINT PAUL—Just hours after the Minnesota Vikings dispatched the San Diego Chargers in Minneapolis, the Minnesota Wild put up a football score on the Winnipeg Jets in St. Paul.

The Wild stormed out to a 4-0 first period lead on its way to a 8-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets on Sunday night at Xcel Energy Center. Six different players lit the lamp for Minnesota against a prospect-heavy Winnipeg lineup as the Wild raised its preseason record to 3-2.

Matt Dumba scored twice and added a pair of assists while Nino Niederreiter chipped in three points of his own (1-2—3). In just his second start of the preseason, Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk did not see much critical action in stopping 18 of the 19 shots he faced against a Jets team missing the likes of Blake Wheeler, Dustin Byfuglien and Bryan Little.

All nine of the game’s goals were scored at even strength as the Jets (0-4) and Wild (0-5) each came up empty on the power play.

Minnesota coach Mike Yeo said it was hard to find too much to complain about in his team’s fifth preseason game and pointed to the team’s offensive zone net play as something that carried over from the second half of last year into this game.

“[Directly resulted in] a lot of goals for us tonight,” Yeo said. “It’s good to see that kind of where it was when we left off at the end of the year.”

(From L to R) Charlie Coyle, Nino Niederreiter, Jonas Brodin, Matt Dumba and Mikko Koivu celebrate Dumba’s second-period goal giving Minnesota a 4-0 lead over Winnipeg enroute to an 8-1 win over the Jets Sunday night at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

The defensive tandem of pairing of Dumba and Jonas Brodin combined for six points (3-3–6) and finished the game a collective plus-9 with Dumba alone a plus-6.

“I love playing with Brods, we’re best of friends and we kind of know what each other is thinking out there,” Dumba said. “We know each other’s game pretty good.”

“That pairing has been very good through the scrimmages when they were together,” Yeo said. “Those guys seem to have some chemistry together and certainly they’ve been very dangerous all through camp in the offensive zone.”

Dumba said tonight’s game was the best he had felt on the ice all preseason and he credited that to the ability to get back to his game-day routine.

“You get your nap in, you’re doing everything the way it goes on game days,” Dumba said. “I think that really helped me mentally be prepared for tonight’s game.”

Niederreiter got Minnesota on the board just 3:27 into the contest when Mikko Koivu’s shot from just inside the blue line ricocheted off of him and behind Jets goalie Michael Hutchinson.

“I feel like that’s my bread and butter right in front of the net,” Niederreiter said, “Obviously it’s not always pretty, you get shots on you or you get some slashes and all that stuff.”

Winnipeg’s undermanned traveling contingent managed to the Wild at bay for the next 6:41 which turned out be Minnesota’s longest scoring drought until after Dumba scored the Wild’s seventh goal at 14:01 of the second.

Goals by Charlie Coyle, Mikael Granlund and Dumba in the latter half of the opening period extended the lead to four before Mikko Koivu made it 5-0 just 4:29 into the second.

Koivu, who in addition to his two points was a plus-3 and won 13 of 18 faceoffs (72 percent) is having an outstanding training camp according to Yeo.

“In my time here this is as good of a camp that I’ve seen [Koivu] have,” Yeo said. “He’s been real motivated every day and just kind of helping those kids along, which is huge.”

Penalties by Granlund and Nate Prosser 20 seconds apart just past the six minute mark of the second gave Winnipeg an opportunity to get back in the game. But the Jets failed to register a shot in the entire 2:20 man advantage, including a full two minute 5-on-3.

Zach Parise made it 6-0 midway through the second before Dumba added the extra point on a slapper from the left point at 14:01. The teams traded goals by Jonas Brodin and Mathieu Perreault in a third period which deteriorated into a brawlfest before it was over.

The post Wild break the planes appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Struggles against Chicago only get tougher to swallow

It’s been nearly a year since the Chicago Blackhawks were gifted a 2-1 Game 6 overtime win over the Minnesota Wild in the second round of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The puck ricocheted off of an Xcel Energy Center glass stanchion to Patrick Kane — of all people — who, in a split second facilitated Minnesota’s second straight postseason elimination by the Blackhawks.

Fast forward to Tuesday night’s Game 3 in which Kane scored the lone goal, his fourth of the series, in a 1-0 Chicago win in St. Paul to give the Blackhawks a commanding 3-0 second-round series lead.

The Wild may very well win Game 4 at home on Thursday and avoid a sweep, but to expect even this resilient group to become just the fifth team NHL history to rally from such a deficit is asking a lot. Wild defenseman Ryan Suter, however, offered a slightly different, albeit unrealistic, take.

“We’ve always seemed to make it harder on us than we need to,” Suter said. “Maybe this is a good thing for us.”

Chicago’s Patrick Kane continues to be a thorn in Minnesota’s side, especially in the postseason. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Each of the aforementioned Kane goals was his sixth of the postseason and both, one unequivocally and one potentially, killed the Wild’s postseason.

But they also produced vastly different post-game reactions from players.

Kane’s overtime winner a year ago left Minnesota with a sense of disappointment and frustration in its failure to advance, but it was tempered by pride in advancing past the first round for the first time in 11 seasons and pushing the defending Stanley Cup champs as hard as they did.

“I thought we had our chances and that’s why it really sucks right now,” Wild captain Mikko Koivu said at the time. “It’s been a great run. It’s been the best time of my NHL career and when it ends like that it’s an empty feeling right now.”

Zach Parise added, “We did a lot of good things to get to where we are but it’s disappointing to be ending right now.”

Win, lose or “happy point,” Parise is generally not one to shy away from questions after a game, but it was clear Tuesday’s loss particularly stung Minnesota’s assistant captain. He responded to eight questions with a total of 101 words.

When asked where his team goes from here, Parise replied, “Win the fourth game. That’s about it.”

While others in the room may have offered more in terms of sound bites, the cloud hovering above them was a few shades darker than it was 51 weeks ago.

The faces, such as Parise, Koivu, Jason Pominville, Suter and Mike Yeo, remain the same but their expectations have since risen to a point where the Wild’s current conundrum is virtually inconceivable to them.

“We know what we’re up against, so I’m not going to get up here right now and give a big rah-rah speech,” Yeo said after Game 3. “We’ve got to win a game. It’s as simple as that. In all honesty, I’ve never been here before. It’s kind of unfamiliar territory. I guess what you do is try to draw upon previous experiences even though it’s not the same.”

Yes, it’s true this same cast of characters compiled a pitiful 18-19-5 record through 42 regular season games and stormed back to make the playoffs. But while its 28-9-3 mark to close out the season may reflect overachievement to a degree, it is by far a more accurate depiction of the Wild’s capabilities.

So, of course, Minnesota looked at this series as a chance to advance to the Western Conference Finals for the first time since 2003 — especially after the Wild dispatched St. Louis, considered by many a tougher matchup for them, in six games.

Scenes like this have been few and far between for the Wild in their series with Chicago. (MHM Photo / Jonathan Watkins)

But the playoff demons which have plagued the Wild against Chicago the past two seasons linger: Kane, Corey Crawford, Jonathan Toews, Patrick Sharp, Marian Hossa and, let’s be honest, some pretty miserable puck luck.

“We had some good looks, weren’t able to find a way to put one in and they miss a play, get a bounce and end up scoring a goal,” Pominville said. “That’s the difference. We just got to find a way to put one in and lately we haven’t been getting those bounces go our way.”

Even the one Minnesota exorcised, its own goaltending stability, hasn’t made a difference as season-savior Devan Dubnyk hasn’t been up to par against the Blackhawks. When asked what happened on the Kane goal in Game 3, Dubnyk took the Parise approach.

“Well, he shot it through my legs. That is what happened.”

But none of the rest of it matters if the Wild can’t score.

Minnesota’s top-5 regular season goal scorers (Parise, Nino Niederreiter, Thomas Vanek, Jason Zucker and Pominville) have combined for just 11 playoff goals in nine games and only two against Chicago. That’s two fewer than Kane alone has scored against Minnesota.

“We have to make sure we play our heart out next game and make sure we get some goals,” Niederreiter said. “That’s the biggest thing, we can’t win if we don’t score and that’s exactly what happened tonight.”

The oft-criticized Vanek has zero goals to go with his four postseason assists which hardly make up for his defensive liabilities.

On the other hand, Chicago’s five best goal scorers in the regular season have scored seven of their 17 overall postseason goals in this series and while Hossa, too, is scoreless he’s also a tremendous asset in his own zone.

Looking back at how the series has unfolded, it would be easy to recall specific key moments in each game and ponder the “What if …?” scenarios and the impact they had on the overall outcome. But Koivu dismissed that notion without hesitation.

“We haven’t done that and we’re not starting to do that,” Koivu said. “We’re going to take every positive thing that we have and what we had throughout the season. Right now we’re going to get ready for Game 4 and not look any further than that like we’ve been doing all season long.”

The post 3-0 deficit a bitter pill for Wild appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Dominant Game 3 performance lifts Minnesota over St. Louis

St. Paul – The Wild played textbook defense to disassemble the St. Louis Blues’ attack, ignored the Blues’ repeated attempts to square off and rolled to a 3-0 victory Monday night to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-7 NHL playoff series.

With a highly amped crowd of 19,165 prepared to lift the ceiling of the Xcel Energy Center, fourth-seeded Minnesota played like the favorite for 60 minutes against the top-seeded Blues.

And, as people like to say, the crowd went wild.

“We fed off the energy the crowd gave us,” said forward Jason Pominville, whose second-period goal was the winner. “We knew it was going to be good and it was even better than what I expected.”

Devan Dubnyk needed just 17 saves to record the shutout while Pominville, Zach Parise and Nino Niederreiter each scored for the Wild, who will try to secure a 3-1 series lead in Game 4 Wednesday night at the X.

“Obviously, we feel good about our game,” Pominville said, “but we’ve got to put it behind us and look at the next one because they’re going to regroup and bounce back just like they did at home.”

The Wild’s speed game left St. Louis behind much of the evening and reduced players like Steve Ott and David Backes to trying to goad Minnesota players into extracurricular post-whistle stuff.

Didn’t happen.

“Our guys are able to handle it,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said.

The line of Mikael Granlund, Pominville and Parise each accounted for two second-period points as the Wild took control before getting a late empty-netter from Niederreiter.

“We were a lot better with the puck tonight in the offensive zone,” Parise said. “We were holding onto it longer, making some more plays and we were better on the rush, I thought, attacking the middle of the ice. We were able to get into the zone with some pressure. Teams look fast when you do that.”

Neither team got a lot going during a scoreless first period, but the Wild limited the Blues to just four shots on goal as a sign that it was not about to yield a whole lot.

Minnesota grabbed a 1-0 lead when Parise found Pominville alone in front of a wide-open net at 14:08 of the second period, and two minutes later Parise dug the puck free and beat Blues goaltender Jake Allen to make it 2-0.

The vocal response of the 19,000-plus surprised Dubnyk, who was playing his first home playoff game and said he couldn’t even hear officials’ whistles or the simple sounds of the game.

“You’re moving around deaf and, you know, I think we fed off it,” he said. “We got going in the second period and really used the crowd to our advantage.”

Granlund’s line was one of four that repeatedly outskated the Blues.

“Every single line, every pairing tonight was on top of the puck,” Dubnyk said.

Jason Zucker, Justin Fontaine and several others put on speed skating demonstrations all evening for the appreciative standing-room-only audience.

“We’re build on speed,” Yeo pointed out. “We have to be playing fast.”

Additionally, they utilized their speed to backcheck the heck out of the Blues forwards who had led St. Louis to a 4-1 win in Game 2 in St. Louis.

“I thought from goalie on out, we didn’t have a passenger,” Parise said. “Everyone contributed in their own way. We were tough to play against.”

Charlie Coyle, who had three hits as Minnesota led 28-26 in hits, said his team produced exactly what was called for.

“That’s the type of game we want right there,” he said. “A tough game on them, make things tough, clog up the neutral zone and don’t give ’em much.”

Dubnyk had an often relaxed 60 minutes, thanks to Minnesota leading 24-17 in shots and quickly clearing out the defensive zone whenever the Blues got close.

“The defense played awesome,” Coyle said. “We were trying to help out, blocking shots, being in the shooting lane, boxing out guys, and that’s the way we want to play.”

After outplaying the Blues soundly in two of three games and battling them evenly in the other, the Wild appear to be sitting in a very comfortable spot. Nevertheless, they say they are taking nothing for granted.

“It’s all about the next game now,” Granlund said. “It was a good effort for us, but we need to keep on and move to the next game.”

Backes, the Blues’ captain who is from Blaine, pointed out that his team certainly expects to be ready for Game 4.

“We have to learn our lesson, put this behind us and remember it’s a battle out there,” he said. “It’s a war and it’s going to take a great effort every night against this team.”

The post Wild zip to series lead against Blues appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Koivu, Niederreiter lead Minnesota over defending champs

St. Paul — The Wild get a day off Sunday.

They earned it.

Led by two goals apiece from Mikko Koivu and Nino Niederreiter and another superlative performance from goaltender Devan Dubnyk, the Wild tripped the Los Angeles Kings 4-1 Saturday night at the Xcel Energy Center.

Unlike so many of their games during an incredible hot streak, however, this win was equally about tenacity and goaltending as 19,204 onlookers shifted uneasily in their seats over an uncomfortable 37 of the final 40 minutes.

Niederreiter’s power-play goal with 3:03 remaining made it 3-1 and allowed the home fans to breathe easier before Koivu’s empty-netter 101 seconds later made the final margin look a whole lot different than how the game actually proceeded.

“I’m just really impressed with a lot of things in this game,” Wild coach Mike Yeo said after his team climbed over Chicago and temporarily into third place in the NHL Central Division, although the Blackhawks have two additional games remaining. “We had a huge win last night and we came back in today and there was a real sharp focus and determination today, and that’s a good sign.”

Asked if this has developed into a pretty special team, Yeo pointed out that there are six games remaining, but admitted that things right now are not too bad.

“Look at what we’ve done lately,” he said, “and there’s no reason we should not feel good.”

The win over the Kings – Los Angeles outshot Minnesota 32-20 including 25-11 over the final two periods – lifted the Wild’s record since Jan. 15 to a stunning 26-6-2.

Of course, Dubnyk has started every one of those games. He has allowed 57 goals for a 1.70 goals-against record, a .939 save percentage and a 26-6-1 record since joining the Wild.

Despite working the night before in a home win over Calgary, he posted 31 saves Saturday and is now 4-0-1 in the second games of back-to-backs with the Wild since he was pulled Jan. 20 in Detroit.

“What can you say about the job he did tonight?” Yeo commented. “He was outstanding.”

Again.

Dubnyk did get some help when defenseman Jonas Brodin stepped in to keep a puck out of the net in the second period.

“Brods saved me from one there,” Dubnyk said.

This was an evening when the Wild came out strong, grabbed a 2-0 first-period lead and then bent like a tree in a strong wind against some relentless pressure applied by Los Angeles.

“We didn’t have the legs,” Yeo confessed.

They did what was necessary, however, impressively killing three penalties including a five-on-three that lasted 20 seconds. The Wild have now killed 76 of their past 81 penalties to lead the NHL with a 93.8 percent success rate since the all-star break.

And they have four days to regroup before their next game against the New York Rangers Thursday night at the X.

Yeo said most of his players will also get Monday off.

One of those will be Dubnyk, who truly has earned a breather.

“It’ll be fun to try to get together with some of the guys and take a breath and look back and really enjoy what we’ve done so far,” he said. “We don’t usually get this much time to think about it, so it’s a good time to relax and think about it and get ready for Thursday.”

Yes, the team is rolling, Koivu said, but this is no time to take a postseason berth or anything else for granted.

“It doesn’t matter now where we are right now,” he said. “It matters after 82.”

Nevertheless, after 76 games they have 95 points, a five-game winning streak and – yippee — a day or two off.

The post Wild hold off Kings appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Minnesota’s sixth straight win a costly one

Though they may no longer be division rivals, bad blood runs deep, and tonight certainly had that old rivalry feel to it as the Wild topped the Canucks, 5-3, for their sixth win in a row.

It was a hard-hitting, chirp-filled affair and while the Wild walked away with the win — and made up some ground in the playoff picture — the Canucks left a crucial mark as both Ryan Carter and Jason Zucker left the game early due to injury. Wild head coach Mike Yeo noted after the game that both sustained upper-body injuries and will not return to the lineup in the near future.

Playing with only ten forwards, guys stepped up as needed, including Nino Niederreiter who saw a significant up-tick in ice time and made the most of it. Niederreiter gave the Wild a 3-1 lead in the first, firing home a Mikko Koivu centering pass in the slot on his first shift with the jumbled lines.

“When that happens you need guys to step up,” Yeo said. “We had a number of guys step up tonight.”

While Nino stepped up when called upon, Jordan Schroeder made an impression early against his former team. The Canucks were buzzing from the drop of the puck, jumping out to a 4-0 lead in shots on goal. But it was Schroeder who scored first at the 5:05 mark, registering the Wild’s first shot on goal, and swinging momentum heavily in Minnesota’s favor. The goal was the first the former Golden Gopher netted in a Wild sweater and he finished the night plus-2 with three shots on goal and 12:30 TOI.

“It was great,” Schroeder said. “I was really excited, especially to pop one early against them.

“I saw (Charlie Coyle) down the middle and I knew I had a lane to the net. I yelled at him to give me the puck. It was a great play, a great pass, and I was fortunate enough to finish it.”

Overall the win allowed the Wild to keep climbing the ladder in the playoff picture, sitting in ninth in the Western Conference with 58 points, just three behind Calgary in eighth. The Wild get right back at it tomorrow night against the Jets, who currently hold that top wild card spot with 64 points.

“That’s a huge game,” Yeo said. “Now we get to look forward to another huge one tomorrow.”

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