The Minnesota Wild had a chance to redeem themselves after a disappointing loss when they took on the Boston Bruins in the second half of a back-to-back on Tuesday, Dec. 19. Unlike the previous night against the Pittsburgh Penguins, where they ended up down early, the Wild jumped on the board first with a goal by Marcus Johansson, who’d been struggling to find his offense, and it was on the power play.
They held the lead for just a few minutes before the Bruins responded to tie things up at one. The Wild fought hard, but right before the end of the period, the Bruins added another to take the lead 2-1. There was no scoring through the second period, but in the third, the Wild found their stride with back-to-back goals under two minutes apart to go from behind to the lead.
They just needed to hang on for under five minutes to win the game, but they took another ill-timed penalty that led to a power-play goal for the Bruins to tie things up and force overtime. Thankfully, the Wild didn’t need a shootout to get this one done as they scored just under three minutes into the overtime to take the win 4-3 all without Mats Zuccarello, Jonas Brodin, and Jared Spurgeon. We’ll start this with the player who won the game, and that was Kirill “The Thrill” Kaprizov.
Wild’s Kaprizov OT Hero
It’s been evident that Kaprizov has been struggling since last postseason, and even as the new season started, he seemed off. No one could figure out why because he seemed healed from his injury, but he wasn’t skating to his full potential. Lately, he’s been showing flashes of his previous self, but against the Bruins, he showed what he’s capable of.
Kaprizov got the game-winner, of course, but he also scored to tie the game at two goals a piece for two goals on the night. It was his first multi-goal game of the season and the first where everyone got to see the smile he’s famous for apart from his goal-scoring.
He banked in a rebound for his first goal of the night, but his game-winner was in true Kaprizov fashion. He broke the puck out of his defensive zone and handed it off to Joel Eriksson Ek, who made the perfectly timed pass back for the one-timer to beat Bruins goaltender Linus Ullmark. Hopefully, this is just the beginning of his scoring streak, and he’ll continue to add many more.
Wild’s Flower Says “No”
The Wild played a strong game but allowed the Bruins several chances throughout, and Marc André Fleury came up big. He made 40 saves out of 43 shots for a save percentage of .930 and gave his team every opportunity to win. While he let in three goals, it was a combination of getting past him and his defense breaking down that caused them.
Fleury played a spectacular game; at times, he was the only reason the Wild stayed in the game. Even when his team took penalties, he stepped up, made save after save, and pulled several windmill saves. It’s hard to believe he’s 39 years old and not in his early 20s.
With this big win, he’s now just two wins away from tying Patrick Roy for all-time wins and three away from being the sole owner of second place. He has plenty of time to achieve that feat, and if it can come in a game like their win over the Bruins, it’ll be a phenomenal night.
Wild Still Have Discipline Issues
The Wild snuck out another win in the extra frame for the third time in the past four games. They did have a strong showing against the Bruins and got great goaltending, but they continued their problem of taking undisciplined penalties. While the stat sheet may say three penalties, they also had two others that were coincidentals so they weren’t a man down but they still had someone in the box.
Related: Minnesota Wild Check-In: Depth Steps Up While Stars Struggle
They must focus on staying out of the box as much as possible, especially against teams with a solid offense like the Bruins. They have to play more intelligently if they want to win games, and staying out of the penalty box is one of the ways they can do that. Hopefully, they learned their lesson these past two games and will try harder to stay on the ice and out of the box.
Wild Head Home
The Wild managed to get a split out of their road trip and probably had the opposite results of what most expected. Many probably thought they’d win against the Penguins and lose to the Bruins, but they flipped it. Now they’ll head home for two more games before the Christmas break.
They must be ready to face the Montréal Canadiens and the Bruins for the second time in a week. They’ll have to find ways to stop Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Mike Matheson, David Pastrňák, Brad Marchand, and Charlie Coyle. Now that the offense has started to get going again, they’ll have to find ways past Sam Montembeault or Jake Allen and either Jeremy Swayman or Linus Ullmark again.
Hopefully, the Wild can take this big win and focus on the good while they work to fix the bad and come out with more wins. It would be great if they could head into the break with two more wins.