Rangers Take Down Wild 5-4 in Overtime

The Minnesota Wild and New York Rangers faced each other for the second and final time of the regular season on Wednesday evening, Apr. 2. The first meeting was a few weeks prior in Minnesota, where the Rangers took the 3-2 overtime win. The Wild’s injury list was down to just Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek, as Declan Chisholm was back in the lineup, which meant Jon Merrill was out. The Rangers were without Matt Rempe, Arthur Kaliyev, and Adam Edstrom. 

The goaltending battle was between Filip Gustavsson for the Wild and Igor Shesterkin for the Rangers. The Wild started with the lead, but the Rangers fought back and turned the tables. Both teams fought hard and were forced to overtime, where the Rangers scored the final goal and won 5-4. This moved the Wild to 41-28-7 and the Rangers to 36-32-7. 

Game Recap 

The Wild scored the game’s first goal while on the power play, and Gustav Nyquist scored it. That was his first goal in a Wild jersey this season, and Marcus Johansson and Mats Zuccarello assisted him. The Wild had the early lead, but the Rangers answered a few minutes later to tie the game at 1. Braden Schneider tallied the goal, and Urho Vaakanainen and Artemi Panarin assisted him. The Wild retook the lead a few minutes later as Brock Faber recorded a goal to make it 2-1. Johansson and Frédérick Gaudreau registered the assists. That was the end of the goal scoring for the first and the Wild took the lead into the second. 

The Rangers tied the game again early in the second on a goal by K’Andre Miller. J.T. Miller and Will Borgen assisted him. The momentum continued to shift their direction as Chris Kreider scored to take their first lead of the game, and he did so unassisted. The Wild answered back with a shorthanded goal scored by Johansson; Nyquist and Faber assisted him in tying the game at 3. Within the last two minutes of the second period, Panarin tallied a goal to retake the lead 4-3 and end the period.