The Minnesota Wild tried to salvage a 4-game road trip by beating the mighty Tampa Bay Lightning who they beat 5-1 on January 4th at home in one of their best games of the season. The Lightning are a lot better in their home building, though. They are a lot better team at home with a current record of 17-4-1, the 3rd best record in the league and that includes a 9-game winning streak at home, too.
Alright. Enough words. Let’s…
Drop the ClutterPuck!!!
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Here’s how the teams lined up:
Minnesota Wild
Wild projected lineup
Forwards
Kirill Kaprizov — Sam Steel — Mats Zuccarello
Matt Boldy — Frederick Gaudreau — Ryan Hartman
Marcus Foligno — Joel Eriksson Ek — Jordan Greenway
Brandon Duhaime — Connor Dewar — Ryan Reaves
Defensemen
Jake Middleton — Jared Spurgeon
Jonas Brodin — Matt Dumba
Jon Merrill — Calen Addison
Goalies
Marc-Andre Fleury
Filip Gustavsson
Scratched: Alex Goligoski, Mason Shaw
Injured: None
Status report
Dumba will return after being a healthy scratch the past two games. … Fleury and Gustavsson will alternate starts for the 10th straight game. …
Tampa Bay Lightning
Lightning projected lineup
Forwards
Brandon Hagel — Brayden Point — Nikita Kucherov
Anthony Cirelli — Steven Stamkos — Alex Killorn
Ross Colton — Nicholas Paul — Pat Maroon
Vladislav Namestnikov — Pierre-Edouard Bellemare — Corey Perry
Defensemen
Victor Hedman — Zach Bogosian
Mikhail Sergachev — Nick Perbix
Ian Cole — Erik Cernak
Goalies
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Brian Elliott
Scratched: Haydn Fleury, Cal Foote
Injured: Rudolfs Balcers (upper body)
Status report
Maroon missed practice Monday with an undisclosed injury but is expected to play. … Perbix is expected to return after missing four games with an upper-body injury. … Vasilevskiy will make his eighth start in nine games.
Game Recap
1st Period
10:57 – Tampa Bay Chance – Lightning F Alex Killorn got a shot on net as he was falling down then got the rebound as well but Wild F Kirill Kaprizov may have kept it out of the net as it squeaked through near the left post. (
9:33 – Fight – Wild D Jake Middleton vs Tampa Bay F Nocholas Paul – Middleton had a very good fight.
8:02 – Penalty – Tampa Bay – Hooking – Steven Stamkos hooking Matt Dumba
7:43 – Penalty – Minnesota – Holding – Joel Eriksson Ek
Questionable to say the least.
0:11.6 – Penalty – Tampa Bay – Anthony Cirelli – Hooking on Kaprizov
Shots were 11-8 Tampa Bay after the 1st period.
2nd Period
Short-Handed Chance and Fleury came out aggressively for the poke-check on Lightning F Brandon Hagel to break it up.
17:00 – Penalty – Minnesota – Jonas Brodin for Tripping Kucherov
16:17 – Goal – Minnesota – Joel Eriksson Ek
Breakaway by way of his speed and Joel Eriksson Ek deked out Tampa Bay G Andrei Vasilevskiy for the first goal of the game.
1-0 Wild
Both Wild D Jared Spurgeon & Jake Middleton won a battle to get the puck to Joel Eriksson Ek for the breakawy.
Fleury then had to & did make 2 or 3 amazing saves on the PK!!!
12:21 – Penalty – Minnesota – Ryan Hartman for Goaltender Interference
He was just going to the net and ran into the goalie.
10:16 – Goal – Tampa Bay – Corey Perry as the Power Play
A one-timer from the point was tipped in by Lightning F Corey Perry in front of the net. It looked like it may have been off of a high-stick. Evason thought about challenging that or maybe if the play was offsides but decided not to.
1-1 Tie
9:03 – Penalty – Tampa Bay – Mikhael Sergachev for Tripping Jordan Greenway
Tampa Bay F Brandon Hagel then said something to the official because he was somewhat hauled down in the neutral zone seconds earlier but there was no call and the official obviously didn’t like what he said because he gave him a 10-Minute Misconduct so he could think about it.
8:18 – Goal – Minnesota – Kirill Kaprizov on a rebound
2-1 Wild
Kap was just in the right place at the right time for the rebound and he didn’t miss it.
7:08 – Penalty – Tampa Bay – Victor Hedman for Interference on Ryan Hartman
He pushed him into the net to take the net off the moorings. He then hit Hartman again after the whistle while he was on the ice but they didn’t give him an extra 2 for roughing for some reason.
Good power play with a lot of zone time and a couple of good scoring chances but still 2-1.
Tampa Bay responded with a good shift and drew a penalty after Wild players collided to create a scoring chance.
3:46 – Penalty – MInnesota – Freddy Gaudreau for Hooking with one hand and he barely got him.
1:55 – Goal – Tampa Bay – Corey Perry – Tipped Shot – PPG
2-2 Tie
Same thing as the 1st Tampa goal. There’s not much Marc-Andre Fleury can do about tipped shots. The defense has to take sticks away &/or use physicality to move them out from in front of the net. That’s not easy to do and even more difficult while trying to kill a penalty.
13:25 – The Wild had a good 2+ minute sequence with a couple great scoring chances and Tampa finally got it out of their zone and created a great scoring chance of their own but Marc-Andre Fleury used his glove to say NO!
5:38 – Goal – Tampa Bay – Steven Stamkos on a very fortuitous bounce off of Ryan Hartman and into the net.
3-2 Lightning
Tampa had a 3-on-3 (maybe 4) with D Mikhail Sergachev going up the right side and he tried to pass the puck to Steven Stamkos in the slot but Wild F Matt Boldy deflected it away. Unfortunately, it went into Jared Spurgeon’s skates and was able to kick it wide but Stamkos kept skating so he got to it and tried to bank it off Fleury. Spurgeon had his stick blade in the way but he was reaching so his blade was a ramp for the puck so it went up and ended up hitting Wild F Ryan Hartman up high and went into the net.
Geez! That’s a tough way to lose the lead. We’ll see if the Wild can respond and get this game tied again.
4:53 – Penalty – Minnesota – Ryan Hartman for Hooking in the neutral zone
The Wild killed it off and they went back to work right away as Kaprizov fed Spurgeon for a one-timer but Vasilevskiy made the save.
2:31 remained & Dean Evason pulled Wild G Marc-Andre Fleury to get an extra guy to try to get the game tied.
2:09 – Boldy was hauled down on the right boards but no call. It almost turned into a sure empty-net goal but the officials said the puck hit a player on the Tampa Bay bench. Again, why isn’t that called?
The Wild got some great chances but Vasilevskiy was up to the task and Kucherov scored an empty-netter to seal it with 16.4 seconds left.
That means that goal on a crazy bounce ended up being the difference.
The Minnesota Wild played a great game but took too many penalties and paid for it. We’ll see if they can adjust that part of their game through the rest of the season’s remaining 36 games.
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Final
Minnesota Wild 2 | 4 Tampa Bay Lightning
Goals
MN: 1. Joel Eriksson Ek(17)-SHG, 2. Kirill Kaprizov(27)-PPG
TBL: 1. Corey Perry(7), 2. Corey Perry(8)-PPG, 3. Steven Stamkos(24), Nikita Kucherov(19)
*PPG=Power-Play Goal, ENG=Empty-Net Goal
Assists
MN: 1. Jake Middleton(5), 2. Joel Eriksson Ek(22), Matt Boldy(19)
TBL: 1. Ross Colton(10), Mikhail Sergachev(26), 2. Ross Colton(11), Alex Killorn(20), 3. Mikhail Sergachev(27), Nikita Kucherov(49), 4. Brandon Hagel(22)-ENG
Goalies
MN:
Marc-Andre Fleury – 35 Saves on 38 Shots, .921 Save%, 10th Loss
TBL:
Andrei Vasilevskiy – 33 Saves on 35 Shots, .943 Save%, 21st Win
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Next up:
The Philadelphia Flyers at The X at 7pm on ESPN+/Hulu on Thursday night!
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