The Minnesota Wild were probably looking very forward to playing the Colorado Avalanche today for multiple reasons. The Avalanche are arguably the best team in the National Hockey League right now as they have both the most points in the league with 97 and winning % (.746%) through 65 games. The Minnesota Wild are 11th in points (82) & 10th in winning % (.651) but they have at least 1 game in hand on everyone above them right now.
The Wild are on a roll and there’s no better way to see how good of a team you have than to play the best.
And, last but not least, the Colorado Avalanche are a division rival who has beaten them in both games they’ve played them this season, one at home & one in Colorado, so they’d love to get 2 points against them.
It’s going to be a physical, hard-fought game. That’s pretty much a given.
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Here’s how the teams lined up:
Minnesota Wild
Maybe the Wild are rotating 3 defensemen as tonight, D Alex Goligoski was scratched and Dmitry Kulikov and Jon Merrill were the 3rd defensive pair.
Cam Talbot was back in the cage looking for his 7th consecutive victory and 8th consecutive victory in games he started.
Other than that, there are no changes to the lineup.
Colorado Avalanche
Game Recap
Oh, boy! This is going to be fun!
Let’s Drop The ClutterPuck!!!
This is playoff hockey! 2 division rivals just battling it out for points. You have to love this kind of hockey.
Wild had a lot of pressure early and it was very clear this was going to be a very physical game from the start.
Avalanche G Darcy Kuemper made a save and didn’t know where the puck was and awkwardly turned away from the puck just over 5 minutes in.
Wild G Cam Talbot is still hot 🥵 and very sharp early. Sprawling save at 12:08.
Wild F Jordan Greenway was called for roughing at 9:03. Questionable to say the least. Colorado D Jack Johnson fell down in front of Greenway so he fell on him and when he got up, he pushed on his head and his helmet came off. The official 20 feet from the play didn’t raise his arm but appears to be the one who blew the whistle. It doesn’t make any sense when the official right next to the play makes a call but the one out in the neutral zone much further away does make the call.
The Wild killed off the penalty as their aggressive PK is working. It was 8 for 9 over the last 4 games. Aggressiveness = confidence!*
*See more on this topic in our Game Notes section at the bottom of the article.
Colorado D Cale Makar for roughing Hartman as his stick was stuck under Hartman making if difficult for him to lift it up which may have caused him to be off-balance and push Hartman’s head into the ice.
Twooooooo Minutes!
Wild D Matt Dumba was hauled down on the PP but no call.**
**See more on this topic in our Game Notes section at the bottom of the article.
End of 1 – 0-0, Shots: MN: 8 ,COL: 14
Joel Eriksson Ek checked Alex Newhook and dislodged the glass in the COL O-Zone.
The Wild were collapsing to their own net on loose pucks. The defensive zone details have improved since that terrible 14-game run between February 14th & March 16th when they went 4-9-1.
Wild F Kevin Fiala drew a holding penalty when Colorado F J. T. Compher grabbed Fiala on the shoulder as he was trying to create in the right corner.
With 34 seconds remaining on the Power Play, a loose puck caused some chaos that led to Colorado chasing the puck. Wild F Mats Zuccarello faked a shot then made an inaccurate one-time pass to Jared Spurgeon so he had to go back to get the puck on his backhand while facing his own net near the right boards and the blue line. Former Wild player F Nico Sturm saw this as an opportunity to be aggressive but Spurgeon was able to turn and send the puck back to the left point. Zuccarello had vacated the point so the puck went all the way to the left boards but Zuccarello was easily the first one to it but Avs F Logan O’Connor chased him for some reason. Zuccarello sent the puck down to Ryan Hartman in the left corner and he caught the puck while turning to protect it as he could see Avs D Devon Toews coming. Hartman then skated beneath the goal line and saw F Kirill Kaprizov open on the other side of the net. He thought better of trying to send a pass to him through the front of the net so he skated behind the net until he got far off enough to get a pass to Kaprizov who planted it in the upper right corner to put the Wild up 1-0!
Now watch this again and look at the Avalanche players just staring down the puck and not moving to defend anyone.
End of 2: Wild up 1-0, 2nd Period Shots: MN: 6, COL: 14
Wild F Jordan Greenway ran into Colorado D Cale Makar at the blue line as he’s trying to stay onsides and the official calls Greenway for Interference Tripping. That Is A Joke of a Call! Should Greenway be more aware of the situation? Maybe but it’s difficult to know what the opposing player is going to do.
Greenway – This is my Shocked Face!
The Wild killed off another penalty and for the 2nd time, Jordan Greenway got a breakaway as he came out of the box. The puck was on edge so he likely didn’t get what he wanted from that shot and Kuemper made the save.
Spurgeon just couldn’t get enough of a Zuccarello pass right in front of the net around the 16:20 mark to put the Wild up by 2. So close!
Wild D Matt Dumba delivered a big hit on Mikko Rantanen as he came into the Wild’s zone with his head down and Nathan MacKinnon didn’t like the hit so they dropped the mitts. Not much of a fight but that’s how intense this game was.
You won’t see Dumba fight very often but maybe he took the opportunity to get MacKinnon off the ice for 5 minutes.
- Not sure MacKinnon is the guy you want doing that for your club, either. He’s their best player and changes the game so much when he’s on the ice.
During a commercial break, Wild captain D Jared Spurgeon & D Jacob Middleton gave Dumba some props on the hit and the fight.
Colorado executed a play off the faceoff for a Nazem Kadri one-timer and the game was tied at 1 with 13:39 remaining in regulation. Kadri won the faceoff back to the left point to D Devon Toews. At the faceoff, Andre Burakovsky was the left wing and J.T. Compher was the right wing. After the faceoff was won, Burakovsky & Compher switch positions with Compher just skating behind Kadri but Burakovsky just skated straight through the dot and sets a pick Wild C Tyson Jost so he can’t get out to the point. When that happened, Kadri just released and backed up to the top of the left circle. Devon Toews kind of faked like he was going to walk the blue line toward the center or try to get a shot off then passed it down the left boards to J.T. Compher and he one-timed a pass to Kadri who took a one-timer that beat Wild G Cam Talbot to the far side to tie the game at 1.
Colorado executed a pick play to tie the game.
Wild Response?
Yes, and Colorado D Erik Johnson took a dumb penalty when he hit Jonas Brodin without the puck to put the Wild on the PP.
Colorado got a 2-on-0 breakaway and it turned into on 1-on-0 then a 1-on-NO as Cam Talbot made the save on Logan O’Connor. Why they didn’t try to take advantage of a 2-on-0 there is mind-boggling.
- Why isn’t that a hooking penalty that makes Hartman fall down and creates the scoring chance?
- The already-on-a-power-play non-call, again?
Wild D Jacob Middleton & Avs F Mikko Rantanen were battling throughout a sequence and the official ended up calling Middleton for a cross-check. Rantanen went down pretty easy, there. The Avalanche score 2 seconds later on a shot from Rantanen. 2-1 Colorado with 9:57 remaining in regulation.
Neither Avs F Nazem Kadri nor Wild F Joel Eriksson Ek won the faceoff but Ek got his stick on it to send it slightly back toward Foligno but he & Burakovsky were battling for position. Kadri swung his stick at it in an attempt to either pass it back to Rantanen or just to create a loose puck and it deflected off of Burakovsky’s right skate out to a wide open Rantanen for a shot that he put off the crossbar and into the upper right corner to put the Avs up 2-1.
Burakovsky (or his right skate) got an assist on that play, too.
Well, this is a predicament, isn’t it? Will the Wild get the response they need this time? Now they need a bigger response since they have to tie the game then find a way to win it but…
They’ve done it before this season and even did it against the Avs in Colorado back on January 17th after they went up by one goal with 3:32 remaining in regulation. The Wild (Kaprizov) scored 41 seconds later to tie it up. Did the same thing happen here?
Wild F Kirill Kaprizov had the puck in the offensive zone. He skated across the blue line to the right half-wall and passed to Matt Dumba at the right point. Dumba went around an Avs player but was closed off on getting to the net and had to cut towards the right boards and send it down to around the right corner beneath the goal line on the right side of the net to Mats Zuccarello. Before Zuccy got to the puck, he surveyed the ice to see what his options were then he got to the puck facing the boards and faked like he was going to go to his left then went to the right to gain some time on Avs F Mikko Rantanen who was on him quickly. Zuccy evaded a check then skated around the right corner towards the right half-wall. Rantanen lost an edge and fell down which allowed Zuccy some time so he curled toward the center of the zone and tried to make a pass to Ryan Hartman in the left slot but Avs D Devon Toews was in front of Hartman to intercept the pass. Hartman got enough of his stick on the puck to pry it loose and the puck went back to Zuccarello and now, Hartman was open at the left side of the net but knowing he might not be open for very long, Zuccarello lunged at the puck to get the pass off as quickly as possible and it got to Ryan Hartman as Darcy Kuemper was trying to make a poke check and This Game was Tied once again! 2-2!
They did it, again! It wasn’t as quick in this game at 4:30 later but who cares!
The Wild took the momentum of the tying goal and had a couple scoring chances that darn near put them in the lead and both had Kirill Kaprizov’s hands all over them. He won a puck battle beneath the goal line with Rantanen (?) and fed Matt Dumba as he was going to the net and his shot hit Colorado G Darcy Kuemper in the right armpit/pec/chest/whatever then Colorado D Erik Johnson cross-checked his former teammate, F Tyson Jost into the boards with 26 seconds left in regulation to put the Wild on the Power Play.
That’s when Kap almost ended it with seconds remaining in regulation as he took a quick shot from the left half-wall that deflected off Colorado D Josh Manson’s stick and hit the crossbar before the clock struck zero for…
OVERTIME!!!
That meant the Wild would start the extra session with a 4-on-3 power play and they put out 4 forwards: Joel Eriksson Ek, Kevin Fiala, Mats Zuccarello & Kirill Kaprizov.
Ek won the opening faceoff back into his own defensive zone where Mats Zuccarello got it and started up ice. He sent a pass to Kaprizov at the left boards on the red line. Kap skated into the zone the curled back towards the boards to avoid Colorado D Devon Toews, who stepped up to close the gap on him, and F J.T. Compher, who was closing in on him from behind. Kap was able to keep the puck from Compher and passed it to Joel Eriksson Ek in the middle of the ice and he immediately dropped a pass to Zuccarello who sent a quick one-timed pass to Kevin Fiala just in front of the right faceoff dot for a one-timer that Fiala blasted past Darcy Kuemper for another Overtime Victory for the Wild!
Kind of crazy for the Avalanche to be so aggressive on a penalty kill in Overtime and Kuemper seemed to calmly try to get over to get to the Fiala shot and he was a split second too late.
That’s 6 In A Row!!!
The Wild kept Cale Makar (+1) & Nathan MacKinnon (-1) off the scoresheet. How often has that happened?
Final Score
Colorado Avalanche 2 | 3 Minnesota Wild
Goals:
MN: Kirill Kaprizov(36), Ryan Hartman(27), Kevin Fiala(22)
COL: Nazem Kadri(26), Mikko Rantanen(33)
Assists:
MN: Ryan Hartman(23), Mats Zuccarello(46); Mats Zuccarello(47), Matt Dumba(19); Mats Zuccarello(48), Joel Eriksson Ek(16)
COL: J.T. Compher(10), Devon Toews(35); Andre Burakovsky(29), Nazem Kadri(55)
Goalies:
MN: Cam Talbot: Saves on Shots on Goal, .%, 7th straight win, 8th straight starts with a win
COL: Darcy Kuemper: 26 Saves on 29 Shots on Goal, .897%
Game Notes
*Confidence – The Mental Game
Confidence is such a game-changer. A player or team with confidence doesn’t think about what they’re doing on the ice. They just play and let the game come to them. The opposite of that is hesitating and thinking about what you should do. NHL hockey is way too fast to think about what you should do at any time. This is why we point out when players or teams are puck-watching or chasing the puck because that means they’re worried about making mistakes so they give themselves more room or more time to make a play and that usually doesn’t work.
In terms of a penalty kill, confidence isn’t sitting back & hoping you kill a penalty. It’s killing the penalty by taking away time & space and knowing when you can be aggressive.
If you look at the play the Colorado players made in Overtime on a 4-on-3, when both J.T. Compher & Devon Toews went to Kaprizov as he entered the zone with the puck, that was a hope play in our opinion. They already had one less player on the ice so sending 2 players to the player with the puck then leaves one defender out to dry as he tries to defend 3 players. That didn’t work out well, did it?
Fatigue may play a role in bad decisions, too, but Overtime had just begun so nobody should’ve been tired at this point of that shift.
**”Give us the Call, you’re the Referee”
What’s more dangerous? Trying to get in the head of a referee or a goalie? What is going on in there? I kid! I kid!
Seriously, though, how many calls aren’t made because a team is already on a Power Play? Is it like a call in overtime, it has to be blatant for a call to be made?
Are the officials told to call games this way?
How different would players play if these calls were made? They’d have to adjust to it. It’d be interesting to see how that would change games, wouldn’t it?
Just some interesting questions about officiating. Not necessarily criticizing because officiating is far from easy.
***More Depth?
How do you judge depth? Lines? Players? Stats of players? Advanced stats?
Think of what the Wild did at the TD, they got tougher and all of those acquired players immediately bought in to what they are doing because all but one of them went from a team who’s likely not going to the playoffs to a team that is going All-In to win the Cup!
Tyson Jost may have been in a better situation to win the Cup with the Avalanche but he was also excited to get a change of scenery and more of a chance to produce than being on a relatively normal 4th line checking role he had with Colorado.
- Jost had his best game with the Wild against the Avs, too. Coincidence? Hard to say because while he was playing his former team, this was also his 6th game and he’s likely getting more & more comfortable and the Wild are giving him more opportunities to produce.
- The Wild obviously believed in his talent or they wouldn’t have made the trade but he also produced more when he began his NHL became more of a regular in the Avalanche lineup (23 goals & 48 points including 9 PP goals & 13 PP points) in his 1st 2 seasons as a pro from 2017-2019.
****Other Notes or Thoughts – Hmm… 🤔
- Goalie Highlights – Does anyone do just goalie highlights? Seems like that’d be very useful to show how well goalies played over the course of a game rather than just the random highlights shown in the recap packages.
- The weird world of enforcers… – Nicolas Deslauriers stretches in warmups right at the red line and he’s looking for Colorado D Kurtis MacDermid to set a tone for the night.
- Has Wild F Matt Boldy hit an NHL wall? – 0 points in 6 straight games and 1 point in the last 8 games after scoring 23 points (11 goals, 12 assists) in his first 25 games. Maybe he likes having 12 points & 12 assists since he wears the number 12? Doubtful. Most likely the league adjusting to him a little so maybe his confidence is down a little bit and he has to adjust back to get back to who he is.
- A nickname for the Kirill Kaprizov, Ryan Hartman & Mats Zuccarello line? – kHz Line? Kaprizov, Hartman, zuccarello? Kilohertz?
KiloHertZ
“a unit of frequency”
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Next up:
The Minnesota Wild will play the Philadelphia Flyers on Tuesday night at 7 pm on Bally Sports North.
Be There and Bring the Clutter!!!
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