Will the Minnesota Wild make a push for a playoff spot?
The Minnesota Wild played their 2nd game under interim coach Dean Evason last night after having 3 days to work on what they want to do and/or change to get this team to respond to a brutal showing Saturday night in a 2-0 loss at home to the San Jose Sharks.
Give some credit to the Sharks for executing a great game plan in that game but the Wild were, as the coach said postgame, maybe squeezing the sticks too tight trying to make things happen instead of just playing the game.
Well, after those three days of work, the Wild took a 1-0 lead just 63 seconds into the game when Kevin Fiala had the puck on a 2-on-1 with Zach Parise and he shot it over Canucks G Jacob Markstrom and off the bar for his 15th goal of the season and his 6th goal (& 11th point) in his last 8 games.
The 1st period ended with the 1-0 lead still intact for the Minnesota Wild but 90 seconds into the 2nd period, Matt Dumba pinched and made a physical play but the puck got by him to produce a 2-on-1 for Vancouver and rookie Canucks D Quinn Hughes somehow got a pass through to F Jay Beagle to tie the game at one.
With 7 minutes left in the 2nd period, Wild D Brad Hunt got the puck at the left boards of the neutral zone after a long sequence with the Wild in the offensive zone. He skated down the left side below the goal line and found Luke Kunin open in the slot for a quick one-timer that snuck through Markstrom to give the Wild their 1-goal lead back and they would finish the 2nd period with that same 2-1 score.
Once again, though, the Canucks scored about 90 seconds into the next period to tie the game at 2. Recently acquired Canucks F Tyler Toffoli got the puck at the right point and saw F JT Miller in the slot so he made a shot-pass that Wild G Devan Dubnyk looked like he had but it snuck through him.
Around 3 minutes later, an icing is waved off as the linesman thought Canucks F Elias Pettersson beat Wild D Brad Hunt to the dots and would’ve been the first to the puck. Hunt looks to have gotten to the puck first, however, and he rimmed it around the boards where his partner, D Carson Soucy, was coming to get it but the linesman was in his way so the Canucks regained possession of the puck. The Wild were scrambling to get back into possession and that left JT Miller open in the left slot and he ripped a shot past Dubnyk to put the Canuck on top, 3-2.
The Wild, as the coach said postgame, didn’t sag, though. They didn’t hang their heads. They were calm and they responded and with just under 5 minutes to go in the 3rd period, F Mats Zuccarello carried the puck into the right side of the offensive zone then curled to the center making a nice little move to keep the puck on his stick and passed to an oncoming Carson Soucy for a shot that goes wide left but off the boards and comes out on the other side where F Alex Galchenyuk was able to grab the puck and turn around for a quick shot attempt. The shot would’ve gone into the left corner but it deflected off of Canucks F Loui Eriksson’s right skate up in the air then off of D Troy Stecher’s glove up and off of his face and into the net for a tie game! Wow! That is One Magic Loogie! That’s F Alex Galchenyuk’s first goal as a member of the Minnesota Wild. It was a big one.
Then, in Overtime, Kevin Fiala almost ended the game with a wraparound attempt that he ended up shooting wide probably because he was tripped on the play. No call was made.
The game then went to a shootout. The Canucks scored on their first 2 attempts and the Wild went 1-for-2. Dubnyk then stopped Toffoli to give Zuccarello a chance to extend the shootout and he made a great move to do just that. Then Tanner Pearson missed and Zach Parise missed and Bo Horvat missed and Wild Coach Dean Evason sent Alex Galchenyuk out to try to end the game and he made a sick move to his backhand and then went top shelf for the extra point! Nice game by the young, struggling forward. Maybe this will get him going, huh?
Next up: the Edmonton Oilers at 8pm on Fox Sports North on Friday night in Edmonton!
Thanks for reading, ClutterPuckers!!!
