The Minnesota Wild took on the Detroit Red Wings tonight. They also wore their 78s jerseys or their alternate throwback uniforms so it looked like a game from 1978 within the Wales Conference or from the early 80s in the old Norris Division.
Detroit is in a similar position that the Minnesota Wild are in, just outside of the playoffs but within reach of the final playoff spot. The big difference is in how they got to that position. Detroit signed F Patrick Kane on November 29th and he played his 1st game as a Red Wing on December 7th. He’s played in 10 games and Detroit is 2-7-1 in those games. The Wild are 7-3-0 in their last 10 games and are just 3 points out of the last playoff spot because Arizona would win the tiebreakers.
The Minnesota Wild were looking to continue their winning ways. Did they extend their home winning streak to 7 games and their overall winning streak to 4 games?
Let’s find out. Enough words. Let’s…
Drop the ClutterPuck!!!
––––– CP –––––
Here’s how the teams lined up:
Minnesota Wild
Status Report
Spurgeon, a defenseman, skated with the group but will not play. … Hartman returns after missing two games with an upper-body injury.
Detroit Red Wings
Status Report
Maata, a defenseman, will miss a second straight game. … Fischer was placed on injured reserve Tuesday. … Berggren, Czarnik and Edvinsson were each recalled from Grand Rapids of the American Hockey League on Wednesday.
Game Recap
1st Period
Minnesota Wild F Ryan Hartman is back and he wears number 38 so the Wild celebrated by scoring 38 seconds into the game when Matt Boldy tried to tip in a Kirill Kaprizov pass into an open net. He didn’t get all of it but was easily able to put the rebound in for his 10th goal of the season. That might not be a good sign for the Red Wings since those two players are the hottest players for the Wild. We’ll see how hot they get.
0:38 – Goal – Minnesota – Matt Boldy (10) from Kirill Kaprizov (20) & Joel Eriksson Ek (10)
Boldy had a chance alone in front of the net 20 seconds into the game too but the puck rolled off of his stick then Detroit F David Perron fell down in the neutral zone which knocked Moritz Seider down and then slowed Perron down too. This allowed the Wild to go in 2-on-1 with Boldy also trailing the play. Detroit #96 D Jake Walman thought the best play he could make was to go to the puck and leave Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy alone in front of his goalie while Perron & Seider coasted for at least 3 seconds while Kaprizov and Boldy tried to get the puck past G James Reimer then they decide to try to break up the play. It might be a long film session tomorrow, boys! That’s some offensive defense right there!
Let’s just say you should never be coasting while you’re backchecking. They did have the best view of the goal though! Buy a Ticket next time!
Detroit 0 | 1 Minnesota
0:38 of the 1st Period
The Wild continued to dominate and had a Marco Rossi breakaway but didn’t increase their 1-goal lead so a defensive breakdown allowed F Patrick Kane, who has scored 20+ goals in all but one of his 17 seasons in the National Hockey League, to get behind the defense for a breakaway to tie the game at 1!
6:32 – Goal – Detroit – Patrick Kane (6) from Alex DeBrincat (18)
Minnesota Wild D Zach Bogosian had to hustle to get to the puck in the neutral zone to keep Patrick Kane from getting to it first but Bogosian just threw the puck up the boards and Detroit F Alex DeBrincat got to it before anyone else and Bogo made the mistake of watching the puck instead of keeping an eye on Kane who skated behind him then skated parallel to the blue line to make himself available for a pass so he could go in alone on Wild G Filip Gustavsson who he beat to the short side just over his right pad.
Detroit 1 | 1 Minnesota
6:32 of the 1st Period
The whole Wild team was watching the puck on that goal. Is there some magic word coaches &/or teammates can say to get players to stop watching the puck?
Detroit had a couple more grade-A scoring chances but Gustavsson was up to the task on them.
15:24 – Penalty – Detroit – Ben Chiarot for Hooking Brandon Duhaime
The Wild needed to clean up their defense after that period. Well… both teams needed to do that, actually.
2nd Period
In the 2nd, it took just a minute longer than it took to score in the first period when Marcus Johansson got a rebound and shot it past Detroit G James Reimer to put the Wild up by 1 goal yet again.
1:37 – Goal – Minnesota – Marcus Johansson (3) from Ryan Hartman & Marco Rossi Unassisted*
*How that goal can be unassisted is beyond us! Rossi broke up the pass & started the play then passed it to Hartman who drove the net. If neither of those things happen, the goal doesn’t happen!
Detroit was a little too aggressive with the puck at the top of the offensive zone with F Lucas Raymond choosing to hold the puck when it was 2-on-5 then trying a drop pass instead of passing across to the far wall. That drop pass quickly turned into a turnover with Wild F Marco Rossi getting to the loose puck and chipping it out of the zone then allowing linemate F Ryan Hartman to grab the loose puck and lead the rush. He had 2 forwards playing defense, J.T. Compher & Lucas Raymond. Compher was giving too big of a gap so Ryan Hartman took that space and used it to move to his left and go for the net. Raymond hesitated to go to Hartman** for some reason so he had to hustle to catch up to Hartman. Wild F Marco Rossi drove the net behind as both Detroit players went to defend Hartman so Marco was ready for the rebound but Detroit D Ben Chiarot lifted Rossi’s stick to keep him from getting to the rebound. J.T. Compher poked the puck back toward the blue line but Wild F Marcus Johansson was trailing the play so he had a pretty easy shot at the net since Ben Chiarot was now screening his goalie.
**A lot of teams have a defensive trait to “Kill Plays Quickly” or “End Plays Quickly!” That means they want to stop the offense immediately or as quickly as possible! Check our Game Notes article for more on this topic.
That might be worse defense than the first goal!
16:54 – Penalty – Minnesota – Jon Merrill for Holding on the offensive zone
SKATE then push! Don’t grab or even just place your free hand on the player!
Minnesota Wild F Marco Rossi had a glorious chance off a great pass from Marcus Johansson in the waning seconds but Detroit G James Reimer made the save. OHHH!!!
3rd Period
1:28 – Penalty – Minnesota – Jake Middleton for Joining Dylan Larkin
Should Larkin have received a Holding the Stick penalty as well?
He felt/saw Middleton’s stick on him so he clamped it down with his own stick so… Call It What You Want!
Great defensive sequence by Dakota Mermis on the Penalty Kill. He went into a puck battle in the corner and won the puck with some physicality (read CLUTTER) then made a poke check to clear the zone. His name does begin with a D! Unfortunately, seconds later the game was tied off an Alex DeBrincat one-timer.
Detroit 2 | 2 Minnesota
2:43 of the 3rd Period
Just shy of 2 minutes later, the Minnesota Wild made 2-3 great defensive plays to keep Detroit from getting a scoring chance including F Marcus Johansson who poke-checked the puck away from J.T. Compher to take a shot away then got the loose puck at the left half-wall and skated up the left side. Detroit D Moritz Seider decided to go for the puck instead of the body but Johansson chipped it by him then used his skating to create a 2-on-1 with Marco Rossi. Detroit F Lucas Raymond got back to cover Rossi but D Jake Walman didn’t go to Johansson and maybe he didn’t see Ryan Hartman trailing the play so he just tried to take away a pass to Rossi. Johansson passed it to Ryan Hartman and he shot the puck from the slot and scored his 10th goal of the season to quickly get the Wild their 1-goal lead back.
4:35 – Goal – Minnesota – Ryan Hartman (10) from Marcus Johansson & Zach Bogosian
Detroit 2 | 3 Minnesota
4:35 of the 3rd Period
Johansson battling through the check coming out of the zone made that goal happen.
52 seconds later, the Wild kept the pressure going and Marcus Foligno made it 4-2 off a rebound!!!
4:35 – Goal – Minnesota – Marcus Foligno (5) from Jake Middleton (8)
Detroit 2 | 4 Minnesota
5:27 of the 3rd Period
GET UP & SHOUT NOW!!!
Two goals 52 seconds apart will get the X going!!!
And AGAIN… Marco Rossi pressured Detroit F Robby Fabbri to help create a turnover and Marcus Johansson intercepted the pass at the blue line then he snuck a shot past Reimer for his 2nd goal of the game and it’s 5-2!!! He had 2 goals all season!!!
This one was just 75 seconds later so 3 goals in 2:12 for the Wild!
Detroit 2 | 5 Minnesota
6:42 of the 3rd Period
The best part of that goal was Fabbri falling down then sliding into and taking out Lucas Raymond. How are the skates tonight, boys? Geez!
The Red Wings answered 78 seconds when Daniel Sprong beat Gus Bus to the upper right corner to make it a 2-goal game again!
Detroit 3 | 5 Minnesota
8:00 of the 3rd Period
Did that shot deflect up off of Middeton’s stick? It looks like it does and Wild G Filip Gustavsson reacted like it did too.
Rossi tried a between-the-legs move in front of the net! He just didn’t get it high enough to get over Reiner’s right pad. OHHH!
The Boldy-Ek-Kaprizov line did a heckuva job keeping the puck in the Detroit zone with the Forecheck (or ForechEk!) and Dakota Mermis threw a shot at the net from the right point with Kirill Kaprizov all alone in front of the net for the tip-in goal to make it 6-3!!!
OPA!!!
After a somewhat rough 1st period, the Minnesota Wild adjusted and pulled out a nice win!
––––– CP –––––
Final
Next up:
The Minnesota Wild will take on the Winnipeg Jets twice this weekend with a home & home series starting in Winnipeg. Both games are set for 1pm on Bally Sports North. The Jets are 7-1-2 (W-L-OTL) over their last 10 games so this will be an interesting weekend as we’ll see two of the hottest teams & division rivals battling it out all weekend long!
––––– CP –––––
Thanks for Reading!!!
Bring the Clutter in the comments &/or on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn…
AND…as always…
