The Minnesota Wild and Anaheim Ducks faced off for the final time of the regular season on Tuesday, April 15, in St. Paul, Minnesota. The Wild looked to clinch their spot in the postseason by getting at least a point while the Ducks had already been eliminated. The Wild had a boost to their lineup as both Jared Spurgeon and Jake Middleton were back from injury, but that also meant Wild prospect Zeev Buium’s NHL debut was put on hold.
The Ducks’ injury list included Brock McGinn, Robby Fabbri, Ross Johnston, and John Gibson. The Ducks recently signed NCAA champion Tim Washe, who made his NHL debut against the Wild after winning the NCAA tournament with the Western Michigan University Broncos on Saturday, April 12.
The goaltending battle was between Filip Gustavsson for the Wild and Lukas Dostal for the Ducks. The game started out in the Wild’s favor, but the Ducks answered back, and it was tied for most of the game. The Ducks got the go-ahead goal in the third, but the Wild fought back in the final minute and forced overtime. That’s when Gustavsson stepped aside to let Marc-André Fleury take over, and the Wild came away with the 3-2 overtime win. With the win, the Wild clinched a postseason spot and finished the regular season with a record of 45-30-7 while the Ducks moved to 35-37-9.
Game Recap
The Wild scored first on a goal by Marcus Johansson just past the period’s halfway point. Mats Zuccarello and Jake Middleton assisted him. The Ducks answered back a short time later with a goal by Alex Killorn to tie it 1-1. Those were the only goals of the first, and it went into intermission tied.
Despite some chances for both sides, including at least one shot hitting the pipe, there were no goals in the second, and it remained tied going into the third. The Ducks took the lead in the third on a goal by Sam Colangelo. Mason McTavish and Trevor Zegras assisted him to make it 2-1. With just 22 seconds left in regulation, Joel Eriksson Ek forced the puck past Dostal and tied the game 2-2. Matt Boldy and Zuccarello assisted him. Time ran out, and that point clinched the Wild’s spot in the postseason, but they still had overtime to play.
Wild fans got what they wanted. Fleury came in for Gustavsson to get one last “hurrah” as he will likely not play in the postseason, and he finished on a high note. He made five saves in overtime with all of his vintage moves, and Boldy scored the game-winner with 18 seconds left in overtime to end the regular season on a win. The assists went to Johansson and Jonas Brodin.
“I try,…. I just thought, try to have some fun with this. I wasn’t too sharp, so just stand around, don’t let them shoot, I guess, but the guys battled hard too around the net and helped me out, so it was nice,” said Fleury about getting all his vintage moves in during overtime.
With this win, the Wild end their regular-season play and will face the Vegas Golden Knights in Round 1 of the postseason, official dates and times yet to be announced. The Ducks will play their final game on Wednesday, April 16, on the road against the Winnipeg Jets in the second half of their back-to-back.
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