The Minnesota Wild made the quick trip up to Tampa Bay to play the Tampa Bay Lightning who are 4-2-0 to begin this season. They’re scoring 4.33 goals per game but they are also giving up 3.33 goals per game but that includes allowing 5 goals in each of their last 3 games (all road games (5-4 Loss at Ottawa; 5-2 Loss at Toronto & an 8-5 win at New Jersey)).
2024-25 Minnesota Wild Schedule and Results
4-0-2 (W-L-OTL) (10 points)
2024-25 Tampa Bay Lightning Schedule and Results
4-2-0 (W-L-OTL) (8 points)
The Wild are coming off that impressive 5-1 win over the Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers. Can they extend their winning streak to 4 games? Will they score first and keep the streak of not trailing so far this season too?
Alright. Enough words. Let’s…
Drop the ClutterPuck!!!
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Here’s how the teams lined up:
Minnesota Wild Game Notes
from @mnwildPR on X
Game Recap
1st Period
A great rush and play through the neutral zone put the Wild on the board 6:23 into the game. The quick move from Wild F Kirill Kaprizov to get open for the one-timer was key to the goal. So was puck-watching from the Lightning.
Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper challenged the play for being off-side…
… but it failed because Marco Rossi had control & possession of the puck as he took it into the offensive zone.
13:37 – Goal – Minnesota – Kirill Kaprizov (3) from Marco Rossi (4) & Jonas Brodin (4)
Minnesota Wild 1 | 0 Tampa Bay Lightning
The Wild were outshot 12-5 by Tampa Bay but still led 1-0 after the first 20 minutes.
2nd Period
On a Minnesota Wild Power Play, a turnover in the offensive zone somehow turns into a short-handed goal because the Wild didn’t aggressively shut down the play. Instead, they played it very nonchalantly and tried to get the puck instead of playing the body and ending the play.
11:05 – Goal – SHG – Tampa Bay – Brandon Hagel (6) from Anthony Cirelli (8) & Erik Cernak (3)
This has to be very frustrating for coaches. It’s the NHL!!! A play can develop out of nothing so don’t be nonchalant with the puck and on defense while on the power play because it took just 11 seconds for that play to change the game.
Minnesota Wild 1 | 1 Tampa Bay Lightning
2:30 later, Tampa Bay had the puck in the offensive zone and the Wild looked to have things sorted out well but the puck was close to the blue line on Tampa Bay F Nick Paul’s stick. Wild F Kirill Kaprizov went to defend him but Paul moved the puck before Kirill got to him. Then Kirill skated out of the zone to give Tampa a 5-on-4 advantage and they moved the puck and eventually found Tampa Bay legend Nikita Kucherov open for a one-timer. He put the Minnesota Wild behind in regulation for the first time this season.
8:29 – Goal – Tampa Bay – Nikita Kucherov (8) from Nick Paul (5) & Nick Perbix (3)
If Kirill takes the body on Nick Paul instead of just going for the puck, he takes him out of the play or maybe delays the play enough for him to get back to defend. This is why checking is such a huge part of the game &/or why just playing solid defense instead of going for the puck is a better way to play.
Minnesota Wild 1 | 2 Tampa Bay Lightning
The Minnesota Wild have responded well to being scored on so far this season and we saw how they responded to trailing in a game. They did that well too.
Wild D Jonas Brodin does a masterful job of keeping the puck in the zone with his speed, hands and his ability to escape. He then passed it down to Wild F Marcus Johansson and Tampa Bay started watching the puck and because of that, Wild F Joel Eriksson Ek ended up in front of the net with nobody covering him. Watch how Tampa Bay D Erik Cernak (#81), F Michael Eysimmont (#23) chase the puck and how D Ryan McDonagh (#27) leaves Ek to defend Wild D Zach Bogosian and Bogo finds Ek in front of the net to tie the game at 2!
1:38 – Goal – Minnesota – Joel Eriksson Ek (3) from Zach Bogosian (1) & Matt Boldy (6)
Defense is hard, especially at the highest level of hockey but teams & players seem to default to chasing the puck instead of reading the play because they don’t have time to think. This allows their brain to confuse them by telling them they better go to the puck. How do you fix that? If anyone knew, it wouldn’t be such a problem.
Minnesota Wild 2 | 2 Tampa Bay Lightning
The Wild were only outshot 9-8 in that period and were down 21-13 in total shots. On to the…
3rd Period
The Wild & F Joel Eriksson Ek drew a high-sticking penalty from Tampa Bay F Nick Paul in front of the net after a play was whistled down due to a hand pass and neither team wanted to play the puck. The official put the faceoff in the Tampa zone. Wild TV analyst Ryan Carter questioned if the face-off should’ve been in Tampa Bay’s zone due to the play being blown dead from a hand-pass from the Minnesota Wild so we looked it up and the rule is…
The Minnesota Wild adjusted on their power play because Tampa Bay was being very aggressive so they started moving the puck quicker and this gave them more time to set things up but Tampa also resorted to watching the puck again. Becuase of that, Matt Boldy got open and the passing lane was clear to him but Wild F Mats Zuccarello still had to make an amazing pass over to him for a one-timer and the Minnesota Wild regained their 1-goal lead!
19:06 – Goal – PPG – Minnesota – Matt Boldy (4) from Mats Zuccarello (4) & Kirill Kaprizov (9)
Minnesota Wild 3 | 2 Tampa Bay Lightning
The Wild had to protect that lead and did so very well as they limited Tampa to just 5 shots. In the last minute, they won a battle in the defensive zone and the puck squeaked up the right boards to Jakub Lauko and he just chipped it to center ice because he saw Kirill Kaprizov was going to be able to get to it and seal another WILD VICTORY!!!
0:34 – Goal – ENG – Minnesota – Kirill Kaprizov (4) from Jakub Lauko (1) & Jake Middleton (4)
Minnesota Wild 4 | 2 Tampa Bay Lightning
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Final
Minnesota Wild 4 | 2 Tampa Bay Lightning
Goals
MN:
Kirill Kaprizov (3), Joel Eriksson Ek (3), Matt Boldy (4)-PPG, Kirill Kaprizov (4)-ENG
TB:
Brandon Hagel (6)-SHG, Nikita Kucherov (8)
Assists
MN:
Marco Rossi (4), Jonas Brodin (4); Zach Bogosian (1), Matt Boldy (6); Mats Zuccarello (4), Kirill Kaprizov (9)-PPG; Jakub Lauko (1), Jake Middleton (4)-ENG
TB:
Anthony Cirelli (8), Erik Cernak (3)-SHG; Nick Paul (5), Nick Perbix (3)
Goalies
MN:
Marc-Andre Fleury
23 Saves on 25 Shots, .920 Save %, 2.89 GAA*, 1st Win
TB:
Andrei Vasilevsky
14 Saves on 17 Shots, .824 Save %, 3.13 GAA*, 3rd Loss
GAA is Goals Against Average
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Next up:
The Minnesota Wild will now head over to Philadelphia to take on the Flyers on Saturday, October 26th at noon on FanDuel Sports Network North at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
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