The Wild had quite the feast over thanksgiving weekend with wins over the Devils, Jets, and Lightning. With 2 home games already under their belt for their 5-game homestand, the Wild had the Arizona Coyotes, New Jersey Devils (again), and the Toronto Maple Leafs to cap it off.
Coming into the new week, the Wild were led by Ryan Hartman in goals (12) and Kirill Kaprizov in both assists (17) and points (23). The Wild were also sitting in the 5th spot in the entire league and 1st in the Central Division. Players wanted to stay hot in the win column as well as the stat column. With that, here is a recap of the Wild’s final 3 games of their 5-game homestand.
Arizona Coyotes @ Minnesota Wild – November 30th
Starting Goalies: Kaapo Kahkonen (Wild) and Scott Wedgewood (Coyotes)
This was the second meeting between the Coyotes and Wild this season with the first meeting going to the Wild in a 5-2 win in Arizona. In Minnesota this time around, the Wild looked to continue a current 3-game winning streak and increase the season series lead over the Coyotes to 2-0-0.
The 1st period did not start off the way the Wild wanted as Arizona took a 1-0 after Clayton Keller (6) scores 5:58 into the game.That lead didn’t last too long as the Wild tied things up 1:08 later after Joel Eriksson Ek (9) tapped in the rebound from Kulikov (9) and Greenway (4). The 1st period ended tied 1-1.
After a slower start to the 2nd period, the Wild broke the tie with a Kaprizov (7) goal at the 12:40 mark with assists from Hartman (5) and Gologoski (12). The goal scoring didn’t stop there as Jordan Greenway (1) increased the lead to 3-1 and got the monkey off his back with his first of the season. With :04 left in the 2nd period, Jonas Brodin (3) added to the lead with assists from Hartman (6) and Kaprizov (18). The 2nd period ended with a 4-1 Wild lead.
The Coyotes, needing to get things going themselves in the 3rd period, decreased the Wild’s lead to 4-2 with an Anton Starlman (2) goal 5:58 into the period. That margin only lasted 1:44 as the Wild took the 5-2 lead with Marcus Foligno (9) scoring from Brodin (8) and Greenway (5).This would be the final goal of the game as Kahkonen and the Wild were able to hold off the Coyotes to give them the 5-2 victory.
Greenway would finish off the game as the first star of the game with 1 goal and 2 assists. Brodin and Kaprizov also finished with multi-point games with both getting 1 goal and 1 assist. Getting his 3rd win of the season, Kaapo Kahkonen finished the game with 29 saves on 31 shots and a season-high save percentage of 0.935. Streak Count: 4 wins
New Jersey Devils @ Minnesota Wild – December 2nd
Starting Goalies: Kaapo Kahkonen (Wild) and Mackenzie Blackwood
This was the second meeting between the Devils and Wild with the first meeting only eight days before which ended in a 3-2 Wild shootout win. This time around, the Wild were the home team and on a 4-game winning streak. On top of that, Kahkonen would be getting his first back-to-back start of the season.
The 1st period started off slow with back-and-forth play until the 11:11 mark of the game after Kirill Kaprizov (8) got things going for the Wild with the 1-0 lead. Rem Pitlick (5) added to this only 1:20 later giving the Wild a 2-0 lead. The 1st period would end 2-0.
Kaprizov (9) got things going early in the 2nd period as he increased the lead to 3-0 only 2:28 into the period. This 3-goal lead would only last 24 seconds as Ryan Graves (2) got the first of the game for the Devils and brought the scoring margin back down to 2 with a Wild 3-1 lead. The Wild lead would decrease to 3-2 with a Tomas Tatar (5) goal at the 12:30 mark of the period. Avoiding the tie, the Wild got their 4th goal of the game from Kulikov (2) from Hartman (8) and Kaprizov (19). The Wild would end the 2nd with a 4-2 lead over the Devils.
The 3rd period was similar to the 1st in that it was a slower period but that is exactly what the Wild needed to maintain their 4-2 lead. This lead would eventually increase to 5-2 with Ryan Hartman’s team leading 13th goal of the season. The game ended with a 5-2 win from the Wild giving them their 5th straight win and 4th straight on the homestand. Streak Count: 5 wins
Both Hartman (1-2-3) and Kaprizov (2-1-3) led the team with 3 points. Kaprizov also managed to find his way into 5th amongst point leaders only trailing Kadri, Ovechkin, McDavid, and Draisaitl. Pretty good company if you ask me!
Toronto Maple Leafs @ Minnesota Wild – December 4th
Starting Goalies: Cam Talbot (Wild) and Jack Campbell (Maple Leafs)
This matchup against the Maple Leafs would be the first meeting between the two teams and the Wild’s fifth and final gameo on their homestand. Coming into this game, both teams were on 5-game winning streaks with only one coming out with their sixth straight. On top of that, both Talbot and Campbell were the league leading goaltenders in wins (12).
The 1st period began with tons of energy and physical play from both teams. The physicality erupted when Jordan Greenway threw a reverse hit on star-player Auston Matthews which led to a fight between Wayne Simmonds and Marcus Foligno (who was about to hop into the bench prior to fighting). Both teams created many scoring chances but with only 24 seconds left in the period, Greenway (2) finally put one away for the Wild to give them the 1-0. This would be the lone goal as the 1st ended 1-0 with a Wild lead.
The 2nd period started off just like the 1st period with the Wild continuing the scoring 5:21 in from Mats Zuccerello (7), giving the Wild a 2-0 lead. The lead would increase to 3-0 less than 3 minutes later as Marcus Foligno got his 10th of the season. That lead wouldn’t last much longer as the Maple Leafs would go on to tie it all up with less than 10 minutes left in the period with two goals from Jason Spezza (6, 7) and Auston Matthews (14). The period would end tied up 3-3.
Both teams looking to break the tie, the 3rd was met with tons of scoring chances and continued physical play from both teams. The 3rd period would end 3-3 with the game heading to overtime.
The Maple Leafs came out in the overtime period firing the puck and taking command on the Wild as they were outshot by the Leafs 5-2. With :59 seconds left in OT, Jonas Brodin gets called for slashing on Jason Spezza who sells it perfectly to refs. The Wild were able to hold off the Maple Leafs power play opportunities to end the period and the game would now need a shootout to find a winner.
Zuccerello kicked things off with a beautiful goal to give the Wild a 1-0 start to the shootout. The next two shooters, Ondrej Kase (Leafs) and Kevin Fiala (Wild) would miss their chances leaving it to Auston Matthews to tie things up as the second shooter for the Leafs. He would do so with another beautiful goal in this shootout. Kaprizov continued the beautiful goals as he skated down and gave the puck a nice, little flick for the 2-1 shootout lead for the Wild. Talbot was able to hold off on the Leafs final attempt from William Nylander which gave the Wild a 4-3 shootout win. Streak count: 6 wins
The Wild continued their winning streak to six with this victory which also capped off a 5-game homestand with 5-0-0. Kaprizov, now 5th in league points, leads the team in points (29) and assists (20). Ryan Hartman, 10th in the league, leads the team in goals (13). The Wild stand 1st in the Central Division with a 7 point lead over the Winnipeg Jets who sit in 2nd place in the Central. On top of being the division leader, the Wild are tied for 1st in the West and 5th amongst the entire league.
Minnesota looks to continue their streak to seven as they take on the Edmonton Oilers in the first of four games on this upcoming road trip followed by games against the San Jose Sharks, LA Kings, and Vegas Golden Knights. Can the Wild end the road trip with ten straight wins?
Stay tuned next week to find out!
