The Minnesota Wild tried to extend their home point streak to 12 games last night against the Philadelphia Flyers, who have former head coach Mike Yeo on staff as an assistant coach and their General Manager is former Wild GM Chuck Fletcher.
The Minnesota Wild have been very good at home because they are playing very well defensively. They’ve shown the ability to shut down the best in the league when they get the matchups they want. It helps that every line is playing well on both sides of the puck, too.
This game started with a Flyers goal, though. James van Riemsdyk came down on a 2-on-1 when a loose puck in the neutral zone is chipped past D Brad Hunt. His defensive partner D Brennan Menell takes away the pass leaving G Alex Stalock to take the shot. James van Riemsdyk shoots and the puck catches the tip of Stalock’s glove and deflects into the net for a 1-0 Flyers lead just 1:34 seconds into the game. The shot actually looks like it’s going wide but still, that’s a save Al probably expects to make.
Is this shot going wide as it hits Alex Stalock’s glove?
Not the most ideal start but they have 58+ minutes to come back to score 2 or more goals and they’ve been good at doing that recently. About 5 minutes later, Kevin Fiala tried a wraparound attempt to tie the game and it fails but Zach Parise’s stick is there to tip it in for a 1-1 tie. It first tips off Flyers D Shane Gostisbehere blade then off Parise’s blade and in. 1:45 later, D Ryan Suter got the puck at the right point and passed it to D Jonas Brodin at the left point. Brodin then used the ice in front of him to skate in and force the defense to move which opened up a passing lane to F Eric Staal at the right side of the net, who tried for the tip in but it hit Staal’s own skate and deflected behind him but he had enough time to turn, get to the puck and shoot a backhand past sprawling Flyers G Carter Hart. The 1st period would with the Wild up 2-1. Halfway into the 2nd period, a turnover by a Flyers D Ivan Provorov at his own blueline allows Wild F Jason Zucker to take the puck and head up the left boards into the corner then makes a centering pass to Matt Dumba coming up the slot. Dumba makes a quick move to his backhand and shoots but it’s blocked and the rebound is heading out towards an open Eric Staal but Zucker had skated behind the net and intercepts the rebound and shoots but it’s saved. That rebound is just laying there where Mats Zuccarello is standing so he passes back to a still waiting Eric Staal for another try and it gets past Carter Hart for a 3-1 Wild lead. The 4th goal was an empty netter from Carson Soucy with over 2 minutes left in the game but he shot is from behind his own goal line all the way down the ice to seal another win for the Wild and a 12-game point streak at home. They’ll head to Chicago for their 4th back-to-back games of the season but their first home-road back-to-back. They are 1-2 in the 2nd game of their other back-to-back games so far this season, all road-road back-to-back games. If you’re curious, they have 6 more back-to-backs this season, 1 home-home, 2 home-road & 3 road-road. I wonder how that compares to the rest of the league. Wild vs Blackhawks highlights coming soon!
