Wild will take point, but lament lost opportunity in St. Louis
The Wild rallied for two unanswered goals in the third period to salvage a point in a key game in St. Louis on Saturday, and coach John Hynes afterward stressed that he was happy to see his team push back after two forgettable periods.
But at best, Saturday’s 3-2 shootout loss to the Blues was an escape. And at worst, it was another lost opportunity for a Wild team hanging by a thread in the race for a Western Conference playoff spot with 14 regular-season games remaining.
Afterward, veteran Marcus Foligno, playing through a lower-body injury as the Wild try to make the postseason for a fourth straight season, was blunt with reporters at Enterprise Center.
“I think it’s just a missed opportunity to get two points against a team that doesn’t show a lot of emotion,” he said.
The Wild pulled within three points of Vegas for the second wild card spot in the West, but that didn’t last long. With a 3-1 victory Sunday at New Jersey, the Knights were five points up, and St. Louis passed the Wild for ninth place with a 4-2 victory at home over Anaheim.
The Wild don’t play again until late Tuesday in Anaheim, the first of back-to-back road games against the Ducks and Los Angeles Kings. And Minnesota’s closest competitors for the West’s last two playoff spots — L.A. and Vegas ahead, St. Louis and Calgary behind — have at least a game on the Wild.
It’s time to rest but also time to watch your rivals, maybe, make some hay. The Wild could have put four points between them and the Blues. Instead, St. Louis cut it to one, in large part because Minnesota didn’t answer the bell.
The Wild are 12-4-3 since returning from the All-Star break on Feb. 7, and haven’t lost in regulation since March 2. But six of those victories are against three of the NHL’s worst teams — Chicago, Arizona (3) and Anaheim (2) — and only three are against teams ahead of them in the West (Edmonton, Nashville and Vegas).
Hynes said he was happy to see the Wild fight back for a point on Saturday, but asked if his team had the competitive mindset required to win four-point games — an issue for this team for much of the season — he told reporters, “I think we didn’t have it enough, obviously, because we didn’t win the game.”
“You’ve got to be able to kick the door down,” Hynes said. “But I think the more opportunities you give yourself to be in these games, and take the lessons out of them and find ways to win them, that’s going to be the difference down the stretch here.”
Effective change
Looking for offense after the Wild fell behind 2-0, Hynes moved top-line winger Kirill Kaprizov to a line with Marco Rossi and Mats Zuccarello, who started on the second line with Marcus Johansson.
Those three played major roles in the Wild’s two goals, combining for four points.
Rossi scored the first on a 2-on-1 with Zuccarello after Kaprizov tracked down a loose puck in the Blues’ zone, and Kaprizov scored the second on a set play off a Rossi faceoff win to tie the game with 3:59 left.
“In the second period, I think you could arguably say Rossi’s line was probably the best line,” Hynes told reporters. “That line did two extended offensive zone shifts. Kirill’s playing really well right now, and just putting those guys together paid off, and those guys made some key plays at key times.”
Kaprizov has a seven-game points streak heading into Tuesday’s game (9-4–13).
Firstov returns
The Wild on Sunday sent Vladislav Firstov, a second-round pick in the 2019 entry draft, to AHL Iowa, which had lent him to Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod of the KHL.
Firstov, 22, played two seasons in the KHL where, according to eliteprospects.com, he had 28 goals among 61 points in 114 games over two seasons with Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod.
Iowa’s season ends next Saturday versus Chicago in Des Moines.
Briefly
Starting in net for the fourth consecutive game, Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 35 of 37 shots in regulation Saturday. Since Jan. 13, the future hall of famer is 9-2-1 with a 1.84 goals-against average and .928 save percentage.
