Wild Secure Thrilling Overtime Win Against Golden Knights
When it was all over — all of the hits and goals and penalties and drama of an evening dust-up between two teams with some history — the clock read “9.7” and the guy wearing 97 had his arms raised in victory.
The Minnesota Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov scored a power-play goal in overtime, capping a determined effort in which they never trailed. They held off a valiant comeback push by the Vegas Golden Knights, reminiscent of their three St. Paul playoff games last spring.
Post-Game Reaction and Analysis
“We came into this game ticked off about what happened last year,” Wild forward Marcus Foligno admitted, after delivering a second period assist, and seven hits, in the win. “This team that knocks you out, you want to make a statement. You want to play hard, and I thought for the most part, we did that.”
Joel Eriksson Ek and Yakov Trenin scored in the first and second periods, respectively, for the Wild, who got 23 saves from Filip Gustavsson and are now 9-7-4 overall this season. The Wild had the only three shots of overtime, and got a brief power play in the final minute of the extra session that allowed Kaprizov to get his team-leading 11th goal in dramatic fashion.
Coaches’ Perspective
“Earlier in the year, we were talking about we’d play a good game, and then we didn’t have a consistency to our game,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “And I think right now, we found some consistency and some reliability in how we want to be able to play. And I think with that comes good results.”
For the Knights, there was no secret where the puck was headed in the final half-minute of overtime. “We don’t win the draw, and I think we knew the puck was going over there,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “And I think we tried to push Kaprizov as far as we could away from the net, and he still found a way to get it in, so tough one.”
Game Highlights and Statistics
Minnesota’s first goal came after a set-up pass by Johansson found Mats Zuccarello uncovered in the low slot in front of the Vegas net. With Knights goalie Carl Lindbom squared to the potential shot, Zuccarello instead zipped a cross-ice pass to Eriksson Ek for a wide open shot. It marked the franchise-record ninth consecutive game that Minnesota has scored first.
But Vegas solved the Wild’s recently solid penalty kill later in the opening period, with Pavel Dorofeyev scoring his team-leading 11th goal for the Knights. After Vegas killed an early penalty in the middle frame, dropping the Minnesota power play to 0-10 in the past two games, the Wild took the lead back on the classic “throw it toward the net and see what happens” goal.
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