The Minnesota Wild played their eleventh game of the new season on Saturday night. Though the season is still young, not even a month-old, frustration and concern has started to spread throughout the fan base and within the team itself. The Wild record of 3-5-2 before Saturday’s contest, included a four-game losing streak. The early-season schedule for the Wild to this point has matched them up against Eastern Conference teams in 9 of 11 games.
Sadly, Saturday’s stunning win marked the first Wild victory over an opponent who is currently more than one game over the .500 mark. (Florida currently at 5-4-1, Montreal at 5-4-2 and Edmonton at 2-7-1). The Rangers were 8-2-0 before losing to the Wild in a shootout 5-4.
Like many of the games this year, the Wild started slow and allowed New York to build a two-goal lead on their first their first three shots. To be fair…
To be fair, on the Panarin goal which put the Rangers up 2-0, there were five players that moved directly in front of Wild goalie, Filip Gustavsson just as Panarin let the shot rip. You can see what I mean at the 1:14 mark of the video below. I’m not sure if that was a designed screen play by the Rangers, but it worked pretty damned-well regardless. It’s hard to see a puck through five guys. The Rangers tallied one more goal just over a minute later to take a 3-0 lead into the first intermission – and ending Gustavsson’s night at the same time.
Beginning in the second period, the Wild started to turn things around. Within a span of 29 seconds, Ryan Hartman and Joel Eriksson Ek got the Wild to a 3-2 deficit and the momentum continued into the third period. Mats Zuccarello and Marco Rossi lit the lamp for the Wild to put them up 4-3. Zuccarello redirected a Jonas Brodin shot from near the blue line past Rangers goalie, Jonathan Quick. Eriksson Ek’s goal was just a little tap-in from near the goal crease following a beauty of a pass from Minnesota-native, Brock Faber.
The Rangers tied the game on a Charles Kreider goal, sending the teams to an eventual OT and shootout. Zuccarello and Panarin traded goals in the shootout and Wild forward, Matt Boldy netted the game-winner before Marc-Andre Fleury did the cross-crease splits to stop a potential game-tying shot from Vincent Trocheck to ice the win for the Wild.
This was a much-needed “W” for Minnesota after a tough start to the season. Certainly, they are missing Jared Spurgeon on their blue line. However, the Wild have often looked sluggish to start games, which results in having to dig themselves out of a hole. More often than not however, it hasn’t been enough in most games this season. It seems as though the Wild just have bad positioning in the defensive zone. They’re either restricting the vision of the goaltender, as we saw with the Panarin goal, or they allow an opponent a clean look to the net as Erik Gustafsson had with no one challenging the shot.
Yes, the Wild have been struggling and the GAA of both Fleury and Gustavsson are kind of ugly, but you can’t put that all on the Flower and Gus Bus. The defense has to help them out. Block some pucks, shut down shooting lanes without screening your goalie, don’t all bunch up in one area of the ice.
Hopefully, this victory serves as a spark for the Wild. It was a gritty, hard-fought win and they will take on another good New York team as they visit the New York Islanders (5-2-3) on Tuesday night at 6:30pm on ESPN+ in New York. We’ll catch up again soon. Go Wild!!!
The Morning Skate 