The Minnesota Wild continued their 7-game road trip with a rematch of their season opener against the Columbus Blue Jackets. They did have 3 days back home in Minnesota after their win against St. Louis on Tuesday.
The Minnesota Wild got one of their top forwards back in the lineup with Joel Eriksson Ek returning from a broken nose. However, they lost F Ryan Hartman to an upper-body injury (upper-body injury (nose?)) and were still without their captain, D Jared Spurgeon. So F Marat Khusnutdinov moved up to 3rd-line center, Freddy Gaudreau moved to center the 4th line, and Liam Ohgren stayed in the lineup for a third consecutive game.
2024-25 Minnesota Wild Schedule and Results
2-0-2 (W-L-OTL) (6 points)
2024-25 Columbus Blue Jackets Schedule and Results
2-2-0 (W-L-OTL) (4 points)
Alright. Enough words. Let’s…
Drop the ClutterPuck!!!
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Here’s how the teams lined up:
Game Recap
1st Period
The Minnesota Wild had their forecheck going quickly in this game but Columbus was also struggling with their decision-making and not realizing how much time they had to make a play or where they could go with the puck. The play is made when Wild F Marcus Foligno disrupted a pass with his stick. That created a loose puck and Wild F Yakov Trenin got to it first and quickly sent it to Wild F Marco Rossi who was wide open in front of the net and he buried a shot for his 2nd goal of the season.
MARCOOOOO… GOALOOOOOOO!!!
12:40 – GOAL – Minnesota – Marco Rossi (2) from Yakov Trenin (1) & Marcus Foligno (1)
Minnesota Wild 1 | 0 Columbus Blue Jackets
2nd Period
Almost 5 minutes into the 2nd period, the Minnesota Wild doubled their lead when Wild F Marat Khusnutdinov skated up the right side into the offensive zone then curled at the top of the faceoff circle and found D Jake Middleton trailing the play for a wide-open slapper that Blue Jackets G Daniil Tarasov saved. Still, the puck squeaked through and Middleton was able to get to it first and easily tuck it into the net.
Minnesota Wild 2 | 0 Columbus Blue Jackets
Columbus coach Dean Evason challenged the play for goalie interference and flip a coin because we’ve learned by now that your eyes will make you think it isn’t goalie interference and then it is or vice versa.
NO GOAL!!!
Minnesota Wild 1 | 0 Columbus Blue Jackets
Yep… the mystery continues. Here’s what the NHL said about it:
Coming soon as the NHL website is apparently “503 Service Temporarily Unavailable!” Awesome! This is what we found from Google:
“Explanation: Video review determined that Minnesota’s Jakub Lauko shoved Columbus defenseman Jordan Harris into goaltender Daniil Tarasov, which impeded Tarasov’s ability to play his position in his crease.”
& here’s the rule (Page 101)… again or the part of the rule that is making this goalie interference:
We also found this 7+ minute video of the Goalie Interference Rule. We haven’t watched it yet because we don’t have a Rage Room currently available to us at this time.
Here’s what the NHL listed as the reason the goal was overturned due to Interference on the Goalkeeper:
Is that even the correct part of the rule? It depends on what the definition of “contact” is in the above portion but the part of the rule we listed is the actual reason because it was due to Jakub Lauko’s contact with Harris that interfered with Tarasov or, at least, that’s what the “video review” result was.
The biggest reason that doesn’t make sense is that the goalie made the save and then fell over thinking he had the puck underneath him but the puck came loose and, “it was just lying there” for Middleton to put it into the net so… did the supposed goaltender interference keep him from playing his position if he was still able to make the save? It’d be nice to have a more in-depth explanation of that part of the ruling and/or the rule.
Wild F Yakov Trenin received a 4-minute double-minor for high-sticking when he missed on his attempt to lift the stick of Columbus F Yegor Chinakhov and hit him in the face and drew blood. The Wild killed it off
So… the Minnesota Wild were outshot 12 to 6 in the 2nd but 9 of those 12 shots were on the power play and 8 of them were during the 4-minute power play. Still, the Minnesota Wild led 19 to 16 in shots and were the better team but were still only up 1 to 0 heading into the…
3rd Period
2:20 into the 3rd period, Columbus took a delay of game penalty then made it a 5-on-3 when Cole Sillinger tripped Matt Boldy and it took just 5 seconds of the 2-man advantage to double their lead on a Kirill Kaprizov one-timer from a crazy angle.
2:52 – GOAL – PPG – Minnesota – Kirill Kaprizov (2) from Brock Faber (3) & Matt Boldy (4)
Was Columbus G Daniil Tarasov not ready for that shot from Kaprizov? He didn’t get over there very fast. He had to peak around a player or two to see where the puck was then saw it was going to Kaprizov and he just didn’t seem to expect a shot because he didn’t look ready to make a save. Is that why former Wild coach Dean Evason reacted the way he did or was it because that’s Kirill Kaprizov and he knows there are not many ways to stop him from scoring, especially on the power play?
Minnesota Wild 2 | 0 Columbus Blue Jackets
5:30 later, Wild F Mats Zuccarello received a pass in the neutral zone from D Jon Merrill and skated into the offensive zone up the left side and dropped it off to Kirill Kaprizov. Columbus D Ivan Provorov stayed with Kirill and the puck so Zuccarello was open on the left and received the puck back from Kaprizov and went in alone on the goalie and beat him under his right arm to put the Wild up 3-0!
8:26 – GOAL – Minnesota – Mats Zuccarello (3) from Kirill Kaprizov (6) & Jon Merrill (1)
Columbus was giving up too big of gaps on defense here and that allowed Kirill all of the time & space he needed to find his buddy. This goal makes the Blue Jackets look really lazy. The forward got back enough then coasted. The left defenseman had no urgency in the 3rd period when they were down 2 goals with under 12 minutes to play.
Minnesota Wild 3 | 0 Columbus Blue Jackets
Wild G Filip Gustafsson may have been thinking shutout once the game got within 2 minutes of ending but Columbus got an offensive rush on a poor line change &/or a poor play F Joel Eriksson Ek not to get the puck deep and Blue Jackets F Yegor Chinakhov took advantage of it and put his team on the board.
18:35 – GOAL – Columbus – Yegor Chinakhov (3) from Sean Monahan (3) & David Jiricek (1)
Minnesota Wild 3 | 1 Columbus Blue Jackets
But it wasn’t enough as the Wild closed out another win and still have yet to trail a game this season. Both losses were in either a shootout or overtime.
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Final
Minnesota Wild 3 | 1 Columbus Blue Jackets
Goals
MN
Marco Rossi (2); Kirill Kaprizov (2); Mats Zuccarello (3)
CBJ
Yegor Chinakhov (3)
Assists
MN
Yakov Trenin (1), Marcus Foligno (1); Brock Faber (3), Matt Boldy (4); Kirill Kaprizov (6), Matt Boldy (4)
CBJ
Sean Monahan (3), David Jiricek (1)
Goalies
MN:
Filip Gustafsson:
23 Saves on 24 Shots; .958 Save Percentage; 1.49 GAA*, 3rd Win
CBJ:
Daniil Tarasov:
31 Saves on 34 Shots; .912 Save Percentage; 3.70 GAA*
*Goals Against Average
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Next up:
at the Florida Panthers on Tuesday, October 22nd at 5:30 pm on Bally… oops… FanDuel Sports North(?)
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