The Minnesota Wild were on a roll having gone 15-5-0 over 20 games since an amazing comeback win vs Carolina on November 19th and then playing possibly their best game of the season in a 5-1 win vs the Tampa Bay Lightning to begin 2023 on January 4th. But… they then lost 3 in a row (1 in Overtime & 1 in a Shootout) before another nice comeback win on Thursday night against the New York Islanders.
So… did that win get them back on track? I guess we’ll find out since they played an Arizona Coyote team who had lost 7 games in a row before facing the Wild at The X on Saturday night.
Alright. Enough words. Let’s…
Drop the ClutterPuck!!!
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Here’s how the teams lined up:
Minnesota Wild
Arizona Coyotes
Status report
Ingram will make his first start since he made 30 saves in a 2-0 loss at the Chicago Blackhawks on Jan. 6. … Vejmelka started the previous three games. … The Coyotes will continue to dress 11 forwards and seven defensemen.
Game Recap
1st Period
18:08 – Wild F Joel Eriksson Ek was tripped by Coyotes F Nick Schmaltz but there was no call. How does that get missed? Schmaltz got his stick blade behind Ek’s knee to drag him down for an awkward and pretty brutal fall.
Wild F Sam Steel sent a perfect feed to Matz Zuccarello but Zuccy couldn’t get enough of his blade on the puck to lift it up and over Ingram.
11:41 – Joel Eriksson Ek got a breakaway and deked out Arizona G Connor Ingram but Clayton Keller(?) lifted his stick as he tried to shoot it into the empty net.
Late in the first the Coyotes got a scoring chance but Fleury shut it down then Wild F Jordan Greenway had a scoring chance and as he tried to make a move around Arizona D JJ Moser, he got his stick in Greenway’s feet to make him fall down and there was no call.
Maybe the officials forgot they should call penalties? It doesn’t make any sense.
2nd Period
There were 3 icings against the Minnesota Wild in the first 2:09 of the 2nd period.
15:24 – Penalty – Minnesota – Jake Middleton for Hooking Nick Schmaltz
12:14 – Penalty – Arizona – Interference on Jordan Greenway
11:32 – Penalty – Arizona – Jack McBain for Roughing Calen Addison
PPG – 10:21 – Minnesota – Mats Zuccarello from Kirill Kaprizov & Calen Addison
The Wild has Fs Mats Zuccarello & Kirill Kaprizov below the goal line with F Joel Eriksson Ek in front of the net and F Matt Boldy (left) & D Calen Addison (right) at the top of the circles. Kaprizov fed Ek for a great chance but Coyotes G Connor Ingram made a great save. The puck went back below the goal line and Ek retrieved it so now he was below the goal line. He quickly sent a pass to Boldy who then passed across to Addison. He held it then faked a shot before sending a pass to Kaprizov who one-timed a pass to Zuccarello at the front of the net for a tip-in to make it…
1-0 Wild
And there was still 49 seconds left in the 2nd penalty
9:29 – Goal – Minnesota – Freddy Gaudreau from Ryan Hartman
The Wild’s power play has been very good and part of that is because of how well and how quickly they retrieve the puck on missed shots or rebounds. On this goal, the loose puck was in the corner with Wild F Freddy Gaudreau chasing it. Marcus Foligno flew in to get in front of the Coyote defender to help win the puck battle. The puck eventually squirted out to Gaudreau and he sent a pass to the front & other side of the net to Ryan Hartman. Coyote D Pat Nemeth was in panic mode so he slid to try to block what he thought was going to be a shot but Hartman patiently skated around him & the goalie to send a pass to a waiting Gaudrea and it was…
2-0 Wild
Not a power play goal but definitely a result of the power play.
3rd Period
15:12 – Save by Fleury on a crazy bounce. The puck bounced up and hit D Jon Merrill then landed just shy of the goal line and Merrill was frantically telling his goalie to stop it before it went past the goal line. PHEW!
14:16 – Goal – Arizona – Lawson Crouse on a rebound
The Coyotes got some momentum in the 3rd with more offensive zone time and D Jacob Chychrun was skating back up the left side and made a turnaround pass to F Jack McBain in front of the net. He had his back to the net so he just caught the pass and threw a quick backhand shot at the net. Wild G Marc-Andre Fleury made the save but the rebound went back to the left faceoff dot where Lawson Crouse quickly got to it and one-timed a shot into the net to cut the Wild lead in half.
2-1 Wild
Did the Wild not think Arizona would have a push in the 3rd period because they kind of let up and the Arizona goal kind of woke them up.
10:03 – Goal – Minnesota – Kirill Kaprizov and it’s on a wicked shot but Arizona challenged for offsides on the play.
As Kaprizov came across the blue line, he was poke checked and that pushed the puck on the blue line while Sam Steel went into the zone so…
NO GOAL!
So he’ll have to score number 100 again.
Arizona kept pushing but didn’t pull their goalie until there was just 1:11 remaining in the 3rd period and they took their time out then they took their sweet time trying to get a shot on goal to have a chance at tying the goal.
Is that why this was their 8th consecutive loss?
Credit the Wild for not panicking in their own zone and playing good solid defense to not allow any shooting lanes.
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Final
Arizona Coyotes 1 | 2 Minnesota Wild
Goals
MN: 1. Mats Zuccarello(18), 2. Freddy Gaudreau(11)
ARI: 1. Lawson Crouse(16)
*PPG=Power-Play Goal, ENG=Empty-Net Goal
Assists
MN: 1. Kirill Kaprizov(27), Calen Addison(19), 2. Ryan Hartman(8), Sam Steel(14)
ARI: 1. Jack McBain(4), Jacob Chychrun(16)
Goalies
MN:
Marc-Andre Fleury – 27 Saves on 28 Shots, .964 Save%, 14th Win
ARI:
Connor Ingram – 25 Saves on 27 Shots, .926 Save%, 9th Loss
Game Notes
*
Bill Guerin – “This is the business of taking someone else’s job.”
Bill Guerin Press Conference from January 14th, 2023
17 minutes, 26 seconds long
The Wild are completely healthy for the 3rd game this season. So far, F Mason Shaw & D Alex Goligoski have been the odd men out. F Brandon Duhaime has taken back his roster spot after an injury that kept him out for 18 games.
The depth showed well. Can they get on a roll here again? They’ll need to keep playing their game and not let the opponent dictate how to play.
**
Wild Prospects F Sammy Walker & G Jesper Wallstedt were named to the 2023 AHL All-Star Classic!
F Sammy Walker hasn’t missed a beat since being reassigned to the Iowa Wild after both recalls. He had a goal & an assist in 2 games then was recalled to the Minnesota Wild for 2 games which he scored his 1st NHL Goal then was reassigned again on New Year’s Day and he has 7 points (3 goals, 4 assists) in the 5 games since then to increase his point total for the season to 31 points on 15 goals and 16 assists over 28 games. That includes 7 power play goals, 2 short-handed goals and 2 game-winning goals.
For G Jesper Wallstedt, it may have taken some time to adapt to the North American brand of hockey but it definitely looks like he is hitting his stride…
Oh… and he also did this…
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Welcome Back, Jack?
Minnesota Wild 2018 3rd-round draft pick F Jack McBain played his former team again after Bill Guerin traded him to Arizona at the 2022 Trade Deadline* because he said he didn’t want to sign with the Minnesota Wild.
*They got a 2022 2nd-round pick for him and drafted F Hunter Haight (32 points (10g, 22a) in 35 games but 23 points (7g, 16a) in 15 games since being traded to the Saginaw Spirit of the Ontario Hockey League).
Most fans’ question at the time was, of course, why wouldn’t he want to join a Wild organization that appears to be going in the right direction and have what looks like a winning culture? And then to do it so he could join the Arizona Coyotes, a team that has made the playoffs once in the last 10 seasons.*
*And that season was the pandemic season when they probably wouldn’t have made it if it wasn’t for the “qualifying round” since they went 8-13-4 in the 25 games leading up to the shut down.
Was it because it would be easier to make the Coyotes’ roster? Would it be a better decision to be around the right players to learn the ropes of being a professional hockey player? Arizona could be the right place for him but he’ll never know what could’ve been had he joined the Wild.
The bottom line with Bill Guerin was & always will be, “If somebody doesn’t want to be here, we have no problem moving on.” See ya, Jack!
Could you ask the same question of F Sammy Walker who was a 7th-round pick of the Tampa Bay Lightning, a team who has won 2 out of the last 3 Stanley Cups?
You could but he reportedly became a free agent because Tampa didn’t offer him a contract.
Former Wild F Matt Cullen had his #9 Jersey Retired at St. Cloud State
CONGRATS, Matt!!!
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Next up:
The Wild head out on a tough 4-game road trip that starts in Washington against the Capitals at 6pm on Tuesday night on Bally Sports North. They’ll then go to Carolina to face the ‘Canes on Thursday night then head to Florida to play the Panthers on Saturday then Tampa Bay on Tuesday, January 24th!
Thanks for Reading!!!
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