Without injured Jared Spurgeon and Joel Eriksson Ek and having exuded a lot of energy during a fast-paced, up-and-down, emotional game the night before against the Seattle Kraken, the Minnesota Wild were running on fumes for much of the night Sunday against the Winnipeg Jets.
Their passing was off. Their legs were off. They spent a lot of their time defending and had a plethora of one-and-dones in the offensive zone.
But on a night when the Wild’s big guns all struggled dramatically, Filip Gustavsson stole the Wild a point with 33 saves before the Jets pulled off a 2-1 overtime victory on Kyle Connor’s goal on a four-on-three power play after Zach Bogosian’s holding the stick penalty with 5.5 seconds left in regulation.
The Jets extended their win streak over the Wild to six dating to two seasons ago. They also extended their regular-season winning streak dating to last year to 11 games.
Jake Middleton scored his first goal of the season four minutes into the game on what he called a “sifter,” but the Wild didn’t muster up a lot of offensive chances from there. Middleton actually blamed himself for the Bogosian penalty.
“(Gustavsson) stood on his head, and I feel horrible for him,” Middleton said. “I made a poor decision with 15 seconds left. I change and put my partner coming on the ice in a bad spot and we end up down a man going into OT. Gus deserves a better outcome than that.”
The Wild fell to 1-0-2 this season. They flew after the game to St. Louis, where they will take Monday off and play the Blues on Tuesday night in the second game of seven in a row outside of Minnesota.
Eriksson Ek, who took an elbow to the nose against Seattle, is expected to join the team in St. Louis.
Late-period goalie pull works
How many times do you see a coach pull his goalie for an extra attacker in the final seconds of a period and actually see it amount to a goal?
Well, it did against the Wild on Sunday night.
The Wild were 2.9 seconds away from getting out of the first period with a 1-0 lead when the Jets earned an offensive zone draw. Jets coach Scott Arniel pulled Connor Hellebuyck for a six-on-five.
Ryan Hartman, taking Eriksson Ek’s spot on the second line, was 1 for 7 on faceoffs in the period. On the previous defensive zone draw for that line, Hartman was thrown out of the circle and Matt Boldy replaced him, winning the faceoff cleanly.
That memory was in the coaches’ minds because Boldy went up against Adam Lowry for this draw. Lowry won it clean and Mark Scheifele whizzed a one-timer past Gustavsson to tie the score with 1.5 seconds left in the period. It extended Scheifele’s season-opening goal streak to three games. He has 14 career goals and 32 points in 42 meetings with the Wild.
“We had the right setup,” coach John Hynes said. “The faceoff before, Bolds was good on faceoffs, we used him in the middle. He had won one against Lowry, and then we just basically were an inch away from the shot block and we didn’t get it and that’s an unfortunate situation but I don’t think it was from the setup. I think Hartzy was right down to block the shot, sold out, and they made a heck of a shot.”
Filip Gustavsson solid for second game in a row
One of the most critical things that needs to happen this season for the Wild to get back into the postseason is for Gustavsson to look like the Gus Bus of old.
Two years ago, he had the second-best save percentage and goals-against average in the NHL behind Vezina Trophy winner Linus Ullmark. Last season, in his first year after signing a new three-year contract, he took a dramatic step back.
But after a strong outing in his season debut, a 3-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, Gustavsson made his second start of the season and played behind a tired, tired group. The Wild’s execution was off all night, especially Kirill Kaprizov, who logged 24:16 of ice time the night before, Mats Zuccarello, who played 19:50, and Boldy, who played 23:38.
It was especially apparent on a late third-period power play when Kaprizov, Boldy and Zuccarello were, frankly, off.
“Even when I was on the bench, I felt like just when you’re that fatigued, it’s hard to execute at a high level,” Hynes said. “I thought that was a part of it. It’s a hard game when you come into this building. They’re a big, strong, physical team. You’re going to have to play hard at your net front, in the corners, from an offensive perspective, when pucks go in, you have to battle hard. I thought five-on-five we did a lot of that but that late power play it does affect you at times when you look at how the schedule is set up, a 7 p.m. and 5 p.m. game back to back, to me I don’t really think the power play didn’t get the job done. I think it was a difficult circumstance and we just couldn’t find a way to make a play in that situation.”
This game would have gotten out of hand if Gustavsson didn’t cover up over and over, especially in the second period when he stopped all 14 shots he faced. His best saves came in the first period on a sliding stop of Vladimir Namestnikov and in the second period on a quick reaction to Lowry’s point-blank attempt.
Liam Öhgren struggles in season debut
With Eriksson Ek injured, rookie Liam Öhgren, who got a four-game look last season and scored in his second game at the San Jose Sharks, played for the first time this season after making the opening-night roster.
He looked nervous and rusty.
He had two shots on goal and had one solid wall play when he pinned the puck one versus three, but the rest of the night he had trouble with his puck touches and passing, and plays seemed to die around him.
Of course, that could be said for many of his teammates as well.
His best play came in the second period when he overskated the puck at the offensive blue line but recovered by backchecking hard and breaking up Neal Pionk’s point-blank attempt from between the circles.
Öhgren played on a line with Freddy Gaudreau and Jakub Lauko and on the second power play, where he notably wasn’t sharp.
