The Minnesota Wild got a nice, gritty road victory on Friday night against the Dallas Stars to extend their winning streak to 3 games. The Colorado Avalanche stand in their way of extending the streak to 4 games.
The Avalanche are on their own winning streak and are 2nd in the Western Conference within reach of the St. Louis Blues and are among a handful of teams who could contend for The Cup this season. The Wild have played very well against Colorado so far this season, though. They’ve won 2 out of the 3 games they’ve played, losing the 2nd game of the season 2-4 then winning their only previous home game against them 3-2 and beating them in Colorado 6-4 in late December so they have the ability to beat them.
Let’s see how they did.
This was a February division game between a team wanting to get in the playoffs and a team wanting to keep them out of the playoffs and seeking 2 more points to get closer to the top of the conference so it was bound to have some physicality and it did not disappoint in that aspect.
There was no scoring in the first but it was easy to tell this game meant something to both teams. The Wild outshot the Avs 11-10.
The Avs got on the board first with a short-handed goal that Devan Dubnyk should’ve stopped. It was a slap shot from the top of the left circle (or to Dubnyk’s right) and it goes in because Dubnyk is going down, allowing the puck to sneak through the 6-hole or under his stick arm between his blocker and his body. In my opinion, it’s an effect of the butterfly-style of playing goalie. It works great for low shots but it also means players will try to shoot high enough to get the puck over the butterflied pads. Duubs would expect himself to make that save 99% of the time. This one might sting at the end of the game if the Wild don’t come back and win.
If there are any goalies or goalie coaches reading this, we’d love to hear your take on this and/or the butterfly-style.
The Wild tied the game 3:26 later on the power play when Jared Spurgeon got open on the back door and received a nice pass from Zach Parise so he could one-time the puck under Avs G Pavel Francouz. The 2nd assist came from Kevin Fiala.
The Avs took their 1-goal lead back just 2:24 later on the power play off a questionable penalty on a breakaway. Nathan MacKinnon scored through a screen of Dubnyk from Gabriel Landeskog.
Then Landeskog scored 3:14 later off a rebound of an Ian Cole shot. The puck should’ve gotten out of the zone when Fiala tried to hit it with his stick but missed then flew by Cole at the blue line. So, a quick change from offense to defense had players out of position and the rebound bounced past Dumba on to Landeskog’s stick and it just got past Dubnyk’s left pad.
The Wild would get back within a goal 2 ½ minutes before the end of the 2nd period on a fantastic play by Kevin Fiala on the power play. After a shot attempt failed, the Wild retrieved the puck and Fiala got it from Eric Staal on the right half-wall with an Avs forward between him and defenseman Ryan Suter & the other Avs penalty-killers in front of the net, the other forward in the slot defending Parise and the 2 defensemen on either side of the net defending Staal who was on the goal line on Fiala’s side and Spurgeon at the top of the left circle.
What Fiala had to look at with the puck on the right-half wall (closest in the picture)
Fiala had already passed it to Staal and got it back and that may have given him a little more space between him and that strong side defenseman. Fiala turned to his left as if he was going to pass it to Suter at the blue line & Avs F Matt Nieto went to take away that passing lane so Fiala made a quick move around him and that forced the strongside D to come up to him but Fiala knows he’s trying to take away the shot and he still has space to pull the puck back. He can also see Compher, who was defending Parise, is trying to take away the passing lane to Parise so he should be able to skate past him, too.
Amazing how Fiala reads the play and uses the space created by passing lanes available to him.
Fiala gets the open ice and sees an open shooting lane since Erik Johnson moved over to cover Jared Spurgeon so Fiala has a couple of options. He can pass to Parise in front of the net knowing Parise could also then move the puck to either Spurgeon or Staal for a quality scoring chance but…
Fiala created a shooting lane with his quick hands so what would he do with it? #WickedWrister
Fiala also knows he could just rip a wicked wrister past Francouz and get his team within a goal and that is what he did. What a fantastic play.
Kevin Fiala is turning into a heckuva player for the Minnesota Wild. Former GM Paul Fenton might not have been as bad as we thought he was, huh? Well, at least in his scouting of players. We’ll see how his 2 drafts turn out in a few years.
The Wild had several chances on rebounds to get the game tied but they just didn’t come to their sticks at the right time and yes, that first goal on Dubnyk stings as it does end up being a difference-maker. The other 2 goals were not on him and the Wild showed the resilience we’ve seen for the majority of the season but it just wasn’t enough this time.
Next up: Vegas Golden Knights at home at 7pm on Fox Sports North.
