Fifteen players on each active roster for the Wild and Senators were born in that decade, including two of the three Wild goal scorers. Those two scorers also came from the Wild’s productive fourth line in a 3-2 victory to secure two points as Minnesota is still technically not out of the playoff hunt.

Defenseman Zach Bogosian set up left-wing Mason Shaw perfectly with a cross-ice pass to the slot in the first period for a 1-0 lead. Shaw directed the puck into the net for his first goal since March 21, 2023, in New Jersey. It was a meaningful moment in multiple ways for Shaw, a player who’s come back from multiple significant injuries.

The goal was a big relief, even if he would have liked to get that first goal a little sooner since his return.

“Anytime you can help the team on the scoresheet this time of year it feels good,” Shaw said. “That’s probably one I’ll remember for sure. That was special.”

The goal was the eighth of the 25-year-old’s NHL career.

On the play, Bogosian brought the puck in with speed and said he saw Shaw “kind of creeping in on their backdoor a little bit.” The setup was something Bogosian said they work on in practice.

“Bogo must have had a little marinara sauce on there,” said fourth-line right-wing Vinni Lettieri. “It was great. It was an awesome pass, right on the tape – and Shawsie made no mistake.”

Mason Shaw scored his first NHL goal in more than a year this week. He’s dealt with multiple ACL injuries before returning to the NHL ice. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Bogosian talked about what a good person and teammate Shaw is in the Wild locker room. Even before Shaw was called up and Bogosian, who’s relatively newer to the Wild team, said he heard teammates talk about Shaw quite a bit, something that’s rare.

Shaw getting the goal Tuesday was huge for him and the team.

“I know it’s been a long road for him and a long journey back,” Bogosian said. “We’re pumped for him.”

Shaw has become a bit of an inspirational story within the organization. He’s had four ACL surgeries in total and has torn an ACL three times while with the Minnesota Wild Organization. The Wild selected Shaw in the fourth round of the 2017 NHL Draft. He worked his way back to the NHL ice, with the Wild signing him on Feb. 15. He’s played in 13 games this season, also adding an assist in the March 3 game against San Jose.

Wild rookie defenseman Brock Faber noted the long road it’s been for Shaw, mentally and physically, so he was happy to see his teammate get a goal.

“I’m sure not many people thought he was going to play another NHL game, much less score in an NHL game,” Faber said. “So, nothing but happy for him. That’s really cool to be able to share that with him.”

Not the Wild’s greatest game
Despite the feel-good moment for Shaw, the Wild didn’t have their best game, getting consistently outshot each period and failing to capitalize on the power play while Ottawa – which came in with a power play scoring at a 17.5% clip ranking 26th in the NHL, and 16% (25th rank) on the road – pumped in both of its goals with the man advantage. Not much Wild goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury could do to stop either of those shots by Drake Batherson and Jakob Chychrun.

Defenseman Brock Faber was happy for his teammate, Mason Shaw, on scoring a goal after his long road back to the NHL. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Still, the Wild took a 2-1 lead into the third period. Matt Boldy scored in the high slot only 49 seconds into the second period. Lettieri scored his fourth goal of the season and first since Dec. 18 with a backhand shot for the eventual game-winner with about seven minutes to play in the third period.

One of the Wild’s patterns this season is taking a slim lead into third periods but not being able to close out victories, letting opponents back in for either the victory or forcing overtime. Tuesday, the Wild got the job done thanks to its fourth line, getting the go-ahead goal when they needed it and holding on for the one-goal margin of victory instead of defeat this time, as happened over the weekend with a 2-1 overtime loss to the Vegas Golden Knights.

But Wild coach John Hynes didn’t seem overly pleased with how his team reversed the trend against the Senators.

“I think we scored the goal, but I still think our game in general needs to be tightened up in a lot of areas going into Colorado,” Hynes said. The Wild host Colorado in St. Paul on Thursday evening.

He added that his team “found a way to get a goal” in the third period, while also getting some key saves from Fleury, particularly on a shorthanded breakaway chance for Ottawa and then nearly two minutes of 6-on-5 at the end of regulation when the Senators pulled their goaltender.

“We’ve got to continue to grow in that area of understanding playing winning hockey and what it takes to win regularly and at times we stray from it,” Hynes said. “We stray from it sometimes in games, and I thought tonight we strayed from it in a lot of different areas throughout the game.”

The post Sweet For Shaw appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

His flag bearing mission accomplished, a gleeful Riley makes his way back to his proud parents. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

SAINT PAUL — Less than an hour prior to the Minnesota Wild’s Nov. 2 home game against the Ottawa Senators, 8-year-old Riley Kane was asked to reveal his favorite Wild player.

“Kaprizov,” Kane said of Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov, through his endearing grin. “He scores a lot of goals.”

At that moment, however, the Wild’s $45-million-man had not done so through eight games of the 2021-22 season. When Kaprizov buried his first regular-season goal since May 7 in overtime to lift the Wild to a 5-4 win over the Sens, perhaps no one, including Kaprizov himself, was happier than Kane watching from his seat in Suite 24 at Xcel Energy Center.

It was a fitting way to cap off the Wild’s annual Hockey Fights Cancer Awareness Night, an evening which saw Wild players warm up in lavender jerseys, the color representing all forms of cancer, and fans holding up signs honoring loved ones lost to the devastating disease. The children of Tom Kurvers, the late Wild assistant general manager who passed away from lung cancer June 21, 2021, led the ‘Let’s Play Hockey’ chant prior to puck drop.

Although Kapriov’s goal may have been a fortunate coincidence that night, Kane’s presence, unfortunately, was not. Kane, who has been fighting his own battle against cancer, was selected by the Wild to be the game’s honorary flag bearer, a youth hockey player charged with planting the team’s flag at center ice as the game’s combatants step onto the rink before each Minnesota home game.

At Riley’s routine annual exam in December of 2020, his doctor noticed a lump on one of his testicles. The doctor thought it was a hernia and referred the Kanes to a specialist. Pandemic-related scheduling issues pushed that appointment back into February and, upon examination, the specialist immediately referred them to Minneapolis Children’s Hospital. Two days later, Riley underwent surgery to remove a tumor from the affected testicle and, on Feb. 17, the biopsy results came back confirming the Kane family’s worst fear: The tumor was cancerous.

“It was pretty heart wrenching,” said Riley’s father Jeff, who lost his father to lung cancer two years ago. “At that point we’d kind of expected it. Not to say it wasn’t still a shock, but it feels like your stomach just drops out and it’s tough.”

“You feel helpless because you can’t fix it,” added Riley’s mom, Tera. “You can bring him to his appointments and you can connect him with all the right people, but you can’t fix him. You have to hope that the doctors and the nurses and everybody else is able to.”

The post RILEY’S FIGHT appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

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Minnesota blows chance to gain ground on Nashville

St. Paul – After a season-high six consecutive victories capped by a humongous win over the Chicago Blackhawks, perhaps the Wild were due for a letdown.

“I hope not,” winger Jason Pominville said. “We’re not in any position to have any letdowns right now. We can’t afford that.”

Still, the Wild needed nearly half of Thursday’s game against the Ottawa Senators to muster 10 shots on goal. They came from behind to tie the score twice on goals by Zach Parise and Erik Haula, but the Senators escaped the Xcel Energy Center with a 3-2 victory after getting a fluke goal with 3:57 to play.

“That’s unfortunate,” Parise said of the winning goal, which caromed past goaltender Devan Dubnyk after deflecting off Haula’s skate. “But I think you have to look at the game as a whole. Did we play well enough to win the game? I don’t know.”

They did not, according to coach John Torchetti, who said the line of Mikko Koivu, Charlie Coyle and Parise was his team’s lone consistent line of the evening.

“We didn’t come out with the strongest game,” Torchetti said. “You can’t play with really, one line. We had three lines that didn’t do a good job tonight.”

In addition, winger Thomas Vanek left the ice early during warm-ups and was not able to play because of an upper-body injury, and then Jared Spurgeon blocked a shot by Bobby Ryan on his second shift of the game and was unable to come back.

“That sucks,” defenseman Dumba said. “Spurgeon is a big part of our back end, and whenever you’re playing with five D, it’s hard.”

This game seemed to veer all over for the Wild, who defeated the Blackhawks 4-1 two nights earlier to extend their victory streak to six. Minnesota had seven shots on goal in the first period, came on strong after Parise’s goal midway through the second and then played hit and miss later.

“We just didn’t play a solid 60 minutes,” Torchetti said. “We have a lot of guys that have got to up their ante there. There’s no nights off in this league. We’ve got to be ready to battle, and I didn’t like our battle level.”

Said Parise: “I just don’t think we played as well as we needed to.”

The comeback was heartening to a vocal crowd of 19,032, but a quick whistle eliminated a possible goal by Dumba when it was 2-2 in the third period, and several shifts later Cody Ceci sailed past the Minnesota net, slid the puck in front and it ricocheted in off Haula.

“A tough bounce,” Haula said.

“It’s unfortunate,” Pominville said. “We were able to bounce back and tie the game up, and then they get a fluke goal at the end, which is not fun when you battle that hard to get back into the game.”

Minnesota is down to its final four games and leads Colorado by five points, but missed a chance to open that gap to seven and also pull within two points of Nashville for seventh place in the NHL West.

The Wild get a quick opportunity to turn things around with a game against the Red Wings in Detroit Friday night.

“We have to be better tomorrow,” defenseman Jonas Brodin said.

After Thursday’s game, a letdown would be impossible.

The post Sens Snap Wild Streak appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Matt Dumba scores twice as Minnesota wins Jordan Leopold debut

ST. PAUL — It took until the fifth round of a shootout, but the Minnesota Wild (34-22-7) finally cracked the code against the Ottawa Senators (27-23-11).

In a highly-anticipated game because of a couple trade-deadline acquisitions, the Wild beat the Senators 3-2 Tuesday in a shootout with the help of Matt Dumba’s first NHL career multi-goal game and Charlie Coyle’s game-winner.

It was the Wild’s first win at home against the Senators in the past five meetings.

Dumba struck just 52 seconds into the middle frame to get the scoring started. Left alone in the circle, he fired a slapper up high after receiving a cross-ice pass from Mikael Granlund. At 8:05 of the period, the Wild took a 2-0 lead when Dumba drove to the net and accepted a picture-perfect pass from newcomer Chris Stewart behind the net.

“It was a good game tonight,” Dumba said. “Really fun game to play in. We want to keep this going for sure.”

But Ottawa didn’t go away quietly. They chipped into the two-goal deficit just 28 seconds after Dumba’s second goal. Mika Zibanejad scored from the slot. A couple minutes later, Bobby Ryan got his second point of the game with a goal.

For Dumba, the goals were his fifth and sixth goals of the season. He has four goals in the past seven games. Despite the goals, Coach Mike Yeo said he liked Dumba’s defensive game the most.

“Needless to say, it was a pretty strong game from him tonight,” Yeo said. “He’s showing that he can play some big minutes.”

The possibility of a hat trick was on the table, but was that on Dumba’s mind?

“No,” he said. “I don’t think anyone really thinks of that.”

In the shootout, Mikko Koivu led off with his signature backhand move for a goal. Jason Pominville beat Ottawa goaltender Andrew Hammond glove side, and Coyle puck-handled his way toward the goal before taking a high, glove-side shot.

Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk reacts after making the shootout-clinching save on Senators’ rookie Mike Hoffman to seal his 16th win in 21 games with Minnesota. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

In goal, Devan Dubnyk set a franchise record by starting his 21st consecutive game. This week he was also the first player in Wild history to be named the NHL First Star of the Month. Dubnyk made 31 saves and is 16-3-1 with a 1.65 GAA and .937 save percentage with the Wild.

He not only came up with the final save in the shootout, he also helped keep the game tied late in the third, as his team killed a penalty. Ottawa clanged iron on two shots during that man advantage situation.

Once that flurry was over, the Wild headed down to the other end and put on the pressure. Dumba hit Granlund with a pass on the rush, but Hammond made a spectacular save. He finished with 36 saves.

That last penalty kill and following Wild offensive zone pressure was arguably the most excitement the Xcel Energy Center saw during the first and third periods Tuesday.

Another contending moment was early in the game when Justin Fontaine had a chance to get the Wild on the board. With Hammond on his stomach, the bouncing puck found Fontaine’s stick for a wide-open chance at the net. But he shot the puck right into the body of the goaltender.

The game included two players making their Wild debuts: Stewart, from Buffalo, and Jordan Leopold, from Columbus. Both were acquired before the trade deadline Monday.

Former Gopher Jordan Leopold made is Wild debut on Tuesday in Minnesota’s win over Ottawa at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

Leopold, a Golden Valley native, has been the talk of the state of hockey with the trade returning him home. A lot of attention also went to a letter his young daughter wrote to the Wild coaches that went viral on social media.

“Absolutely wonderful feeling to be home,” Leopold said. Then he quipped: “Well, we better keep winning, because I don’t want anybody blaming it on me.”

The defenseman has 67 goals and 146 assists in 678 NHL games spanning 12 seasons. The hometown player was a standout with the University of Minnesota hockey team, leading the Gophers to an NCAA National Championship in 2002.

“I told Leo that I watched him when I was little,” Dumba said, who’s 14 years younger than the 34-year-old Leopold.

It’s good to be home near family, Leopold said, and he knows there are a lot of people in the stands who are happy for his return.

But there’s a flip side to that.

“There are a lot of kids out there that have no idea who the heck I am,” he said.

In his Wild debut Tuesday, Leopold became the 21st Minnesotan to play a game with the Wild. He was a minus 1 with 17:19 of ice time, but some extra minutes could be attributed to Nate Prosser leaving the game early with an illness.

So, how did Leopold feel afterward?

“My back hurts,” he said. “It’s been a long day.”

The post Wild beats Ottawa in a shootout appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

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Featured Image:
Ottawa Senators forward Matt Kassian during game two of their second round series against the Pittsburgh Penguins, May 17, 2013 at Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, PA.
(Photo: Michael Miller/Pens Through My Lens)

In the summer of  2012 Matt Kassian was on the Wild Road Tour in Minnesota when it was announced that he had signed a new two-year deal with the Minnesota Wild. By March of the following year the honeymoon was over, however, and Kassian was traded to the Ottawa Senators. With the Sens in town Kassian seemed like an ideal candidate for our “Know Your Frenemy/Enemy” series!

The Senators have slowly been building up a huge roster, literally in terms of size, and Kassian was a perfect fit for the towering team from Canada. To give a quick comparison there are only two players on the Ottawa Senators roster right now who fall below six feet tall while the Wild have nine currently listed. We spoke to Kassian during the Senators visit to the Xcel Energy Center today and what we got, was a great Q&A with the humorous gentle giant, that is Matt Kassian.

Q: Do you feel like you’ve evolved as a player since being traded to the Senators and leaving the club you were with for so long?

A: I haven’t reinvented myself as a player or tried to reinvent myself as a player because that would not be very smart, but it’s about opportunity and there wasn’t a lot here in Minnesota for me and in the end I was sent elsewhere to get that opportunity. Ottawa has been great, it’s been a lot of fun up there and I do think I’ve improved and I want to keep improving. I do feel like I’ve been better, which comes with having the opportunity to get out there and play and work on everything.

Q: How have you adjusted to the playing environment in Canada?

A: The culture of hockey in Canada is a bit different, not that it’s not good here in Minnesota because it is, but Canada is just on another level as far as hockey goes. It wasn’t difficult to adjust though, there are great fans there just like there are here. I loved my time here and it was a great place to play and Ottawa is the same. I don’t have any complaints or worries about my time there or here.

Q: How do you feel about the dressing room you call home now as a Senator?

It’s a good group. That Methot guy, he’s a bit of a different bird, I don’t know about him he sketches me out a little bit but it’s a pretty fun group. [Methot had no comment on Kassian’s chirps although it was obvious the two players are great friends who consistently jest one another all in good fun!] It was really easy for me to come in and fit in with these guys. I didn’t have to test the waters to see if I was accepted with my sense of humor and my slight awkwardness [laughs]. It’s even been easy with the guys who have come in since I’ve been there, like Bobby Ryan who was tweeting pictures of pigeons of me before I even met him, so it’s a good group, a fun group, and a group who likes playing with each other and for each other and I think that’s really important.

Kassian poses with a fan during the MN Wild Road Tour 2012. The fan gifted Matt with a great Gnome/Rooster war statue in honor of a long standing inside joke from Kassian’s twitter.

Q: Is it strange coming back to Minnesota?

It’s a little weird. It’s a little different seeing all of the places you’ve been before and seeing the people you’ve seen before from the security guards to the guys at the doors and gates…when you’ve been around a place for awhile you still know them all, so it’s good to see everybody and fun to be back.

Q: Do you have any former teammates or things you particularly miss?

You miss guys and good friends. Scandella is one of my closer friends so it’s good seeing him, we got a chance to go to dinner last night and sit down together so that was nice. I mean you’re going to see guys, I saw Brodziak a bunch this summer and Spurgeon, but it is what it is. It’s part of the businesses and they know it just like I do that even if you get traded you’re going to be seeing those guys around because it’s a small world and for me it’s right now and it’s going to be fun and I’m excited for it.

As the lights fell dim over the Xcel Energy Center ice, Matt Kassian took to his twitter account as he often does and tweeted, “After much deliberation I have decided that winning on the road is fun…” The 3-0 win was not the first for the Sens this road trip, but it certainly was a night Matt Kassian probably won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

You can follow Matt on twitter at @Kassassination as well as the author of this article @AmySnow17! Be sure to check out @MNhockeymag as well for all of our latest updates, articles and events!

The post Know Your Frenemy ~ Ottawa Senators’ Matt Kassian appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.