The Minnesota Wild are 3-7 in their last 10. The Dallas Stars are 7-2-1 in their last 10.
It means nothing!
Well…maybe it means a little more than nothing. Dallas is surely playing with a lot of confidence but the Wild still have plenty of confidence and have slowly gotten back to their game in the last few games.
Believe it or not, it started at home against Calgary where they regained the battle level then they got a nice comeback victory in Philly and continued with a very well-played game in Buffalo that just didn’t go their way.
Now they get a division rival at home who they beat 7-2 back in November (but also lost 7-4 in Dallas in December). This Minnesota Wild team has shown a response to adversity all season long so you know they’ll compete their butts off in this game.
D Matt Dumba was activated from Injured Reserve (IR) while F Jordan Greenway was placed on IR.
No word on Mats Zuccarello* as of right now.
*Are Zuccy & Kap a “duo” like Backstrom & Ovechkin? “What then?”
Today’s game is on national television on NHL on TNT. Will they once again make themselves look bad for lack of knowledge about the Wild? #Depth #EmptyNet
Here’s how the teams lined up:
Minnesota Wild
Mats Zuccarello was back in the lineup. That’s HUGE!!!
Connor Dewar was rewarded for a great game against Buffalo as he stayed on the line with Ek & Foligno while Duhaime moves back to the line with Sturm & Bjuggy. Let’s put another notch in that Win column, boys!!!
Dallas Stars
Game Recap
1st Period
The Wild had the better jump and better play in the 1st but all it meant was some momentum and more shots on goal.
A loose puck in the neutral zone looked like a turnover but somehow F Brandon Duhaime kept it from going the other way and it allowed F Nick Bjugstad at the blue line and he fed F Nico Sturm to send him in on a mini-breakaway up the right side and he scored on his backhand as he turned to protect the puck from the oncoming defenseman and the Wild went up 1-0 with 9:08 remaining in the period.
Brandon Duhaime made the play on that Wild goal but, with 58 seconds left in the period, he accidentally sent the puck into the stands for a delay of game penalty and, in the waning seconds, a puck deflected behind the net and Dallas F Tyler Seguin was on the other side and he took it & went to the net with it. He was heading towards the crease &, as he got to the crease, Wild F Frédérick Gaudreau tried to disrupt his path with a body check and he ended up taking him into Wild G Kaapo Kähkönen, sending the goalie down as if he was stacking the pads to his right.
Gaudreau also got his stick on the puck, which popped up in the air. Dallas Stars F Joe Pavelski saw it the whole way and sent a backhand towards the net right as it landed on the ice. The puck then deflected off the back/side of the left leg of Wild D Dmitry Kulikov and into the net to tie the game at 1 with 3 seconds remaining in the period.
So….maybe because this Marcus Foligno goaltender interference penalty was fresh in the minds of the Wild’s video/replay coaches and head coach Dean Evason…*
Stick Tap to Wes Walz for pointing this out:
Goalie interference initiated by Wild player, no goal. 2 nights ago Buffalo defenseman pounding Foligno into goalie IS goalie interference.
…they challenged the play for goaltender interference. There was a long delay but… they stayed with the call on the ice of good goal which meant the Dallas Stars would get another power play.
*Check the Game Notes section at the bottom of the article for more on this topic.
2nd Period
And… Dallas scored on the power play 98 seconds into the 2nd to put the Wild down 2 goals. A shot from the middle of the blue line apparently fools the Wild goalie enough to make him not catch it cleanly and Stars F Jason Robertson took a whack at it to get it loose then sent it into the open net.
95 seconds later, Dallas went up by 2 goals on a similar play but this time, it was Minnesota-native F Riley Tufte who went to the net looking for a rebound and he found it. Kähkönen made the save on the first one but, somehow, Tufte was still able to get his stick on the 2nd rebound and send it into the goal for his 1st career NHL goal! How ‘bout that? Congrats to the former Blaine Bengal and University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldog!
The Wild are still trying to get back to their good defensive game** as they’ve given up a lot of goals in the past 10 games or more. As you can see on this goal, Mats Zuccarello is just a hair late getting to Tufte.
Then, about halfway through the 2nd period, F Jason Robertson scores his 2nd of the game (5th in the last 2 games) on a shot that has to be saved by the Wild goalie. Even he would tell you that.***
***Check the Game Notes section at the bottom of the article for more on this topic.
After this goal, the Wild started to dominate the game from a possession, shots & offensive zone time standpoint but…unfortunately, it didn’t include any goals.
3rd Period
The Wild kept dominating the game but didn’t score until they had the goalie pulled for 5 minutes and F Kirill Kaprizov scored his 27th goal of the season off a 2-on-1 with 3:41 remaining in the 3rd. Dallas Stars D Jani Hakanpaa made a bad read at his own blue line going after Mats Zuccarello &/or allowing the puck to get past him to create that 2-on-1.
A minute & 44 seconds later, Kaprizov scored again (28) to make it a 1-goal game as the Stars were scrambling with one player not having a stick. Kaprizov was calling for the puck and he finally got it and shot it into the gaping net.
Should Hakanpaa do a better job of trying to block that shot knowing his goalie isn’t likely to get over to make that save? Uhh…we’d say yes!
There was still 1:57 remaining in regulation.
Could the Wild do the unthinkable, here?…
Nope! With 1:05 remaining, Stars F Jamie Benn sent one into the empty net to make it a 2-goal game once again and Jason Robertson would add a 6th goal for his 2nd consecutive game with a hat trick after a Wild turnover in their own zone.
Not enough Wild in not enough time.
If you want them, the stats are HERE!
🏒–– CP ––🏒
Game Notes
*Goaltender Interference – What is it? What is it not? Will we ever know?
The TNT studio hosts/broadcasters thought it was a bad challenge because they thought Frédérick Gaudreau sent Tyler Seguin into the goaltender but one thing the TNT intermission broadcasters neglected to point out was the Marcus Foligno goaltender interference from the Buffalo game on Friday night was almost the same situation. Marcus Foligno was checked into the Sabres goaltender but it was still called goaltender interference. There wasn’t a goal so that play couldn’t be challenged.
So…what is the right call because it appears the NHL is calling it both ways and thus, the Wild challenged the call today. They obviously thought it was goalie interference or there was a chance it was or they wouldn’t have challenged the call.
It’d be nice if the crew from the nationally-televised broadcasts had people who knew about the teams playing in each game.
Do they not have time to do enough research?
Will the NHL ever have a complete explanation of Goaltender Interference and what isn’t Goalie Interference?
We’ll have to wait and see. Ughh!!!
**Panic in the defensive zone? Or just being a split second too late on the play &/or the puck.
Is it defense, goaltending or a combination of both? You’d probably have to go over every goal allowed over the past 10+ games to find out. Every goal against Buffalo was more on the defense than the goaltender.
The bottom line is the Wild just have to be sharper in the defensive zone. Read the play rather than react to it. It’s an area where struggles arise when teams are in a slump or going through a bad stretch.
***Goaltending!!!
Well…this is basically the same as above. The Minnesota Wild goaltenders have to be better to give the team a chance to win. Allowing an average of 4.27 goals per game (47 total goals) over the last 11 will rarely get it done. They did win 3 of those last 11 games but only one of them did they allow under 4 goals (the 7-3 win in Edmonton). They also won 2 games while allowing 4 goals, the 5-4 win in Philly and the 7-4 win vs Detroit on February 14th.
There were 8 empty-net goals allowed over that span so 39 goals over 11 games and an average of 3.54 isn’t much better.
It sure was looking like Kaapo Kähkönen was on his way to being the #1 goalie but he’s hit a speed bump but it’s hard to blame him alone because…well… it is a team game and nobody can have success on their own.
If you think about it, it’s exactly the same way in pretty much every aspect of life.
Postgame
The Wild showed their frustration with some of the plays/hits from the Stars. Nick Bjugstad was slew-footed by Stars F Alexander Radulov and wasn’t happy. He was probably lucky not to get a penalty as he cross-checked 2-3 players in retaliation.
They lost some of their composure. This is what happens when a team isn’t completely at its best. We’ll see how they respond on Tuesday.
Head Coach Dean Evason Postgame vs Dallas:
- From Michael Russo
Head Coach Dean Evason:
“I’m not going to sugarcoat our special teams. They’ve flipping sucked.”
Tufte after scoring his 1st career NHL goal at The X:
“I played in the state tournament here, won a national championship here, and close with my first NHL goal, so those are all great. This building’s been good to me.”
- From Jessi Pierce:
The looming trade deadline isn’t lost on the #mnwild group.
Matt Dumba:
“I hope that fuels us, because our group, how tight we are, we don’t want to see this broken up. We want to work for each other and put ourselves in the best position to stay together.”
Nico Sturm:
“The teams behind us or around us are playing really well. It’s almost like, I don’t want to say panic or scared to lose, but everybody realizes what’s going on. And we’re grasping at something trying to stop it and it’s not working out right now.” #mnwild
- From Dane Mizutani:
Nico Sturm said the trade deadline is definitely in the back of everyone’s mind right now:
“We like this group. It’d be a shame if we keep going like this and we can’t stay together. Because if this keeps going we all know something is going to happen.”
Kaapo Kahkonen on the fragility the Minnesota Wild of late:
“It seems like when one little thing starts a little bit of a snowball effect in a game like that. It’s not the way it should be. We just really have to dig ourselves out of this.”
🏒–– CP ––🏒
Next up:
The New York Rangers come for a visit on Tuesday at 7pm at The X-cel Energy Center on Bally Sports North.
Will this be the turning point?
Thanks for reading!!! Bring the Clutter in the comments &/or on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn…
AND…as always…
