Start up that hot cocoa or hot coffee folks. A little more snow to go shovel and then settle down and watch some mid-afternoon hockey as the Wild take on the Edmonton Oilers. No doubt the players will have the adjust their normal pre-game rituals for the ‘early’ start time. The Wild can finish off their 3-game homestand with a Canadian sweep if they find a way to earn two points against the Oilers. Meanwhile the Oilers’ rough season rolls on; a club with great talent but some injuries to their goaltending and defense has offset that talented core they have.
The Wild, who have had plenty injuries to deal with this season should have little sympathy. Minnesota knows that no matter what happens today, they must ready themselves mentally for a 4-game road trip that begins tomorrow in Chicago. Will the Oilers rise above their struggles or will the Wild get the elusive Canadian sweep this afternoon?
1st Period Thoughts: The 1st half of the opening period was all Edmonton who seemed to have more jump in their skates. Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Drake Caggiula were swarming in the Wild zone and that meant Alex Stalock was very busy. The Wild did a reasonable job at keeping the Oilers to the perimeter and Stalock did a decent job of directing pucks to the corner. I thought Minnesota was showing a bit of a physical side as Nate Prosser laid out Darnell Nurse with a nice hit along the boards. A few minutes later it was Eric Staal steamrolling Matt Benning with a big check of his own. Even when the Wild lucked out with an early power play that wasn’t quite deserved as the official saw Tyler Ennis flinch after a puck hit him in the visor and he assumed it was a high stick, the Wild seemed to still be a bit sleepy mentally-speaking. They’d quickly negate their own penalty as Charlie Coyle was tagged with an interference call. The Oilers put on a clinic with the man advantage with their terrific puck movement but luckily the Wild were just able to deflect enough cross-ice passes to prevent a few prime shooting opportunities. Minnesota would finally start to get their skates going about the 12-minute mark. It all started with the line of Mikko Koivu, Mikael Granlund and Nino Niederreiter. Granlund was especially shifty, willing a few scoring opportunities. This would be followed up by Ennis who again was shifty down low drawing a holding call on Benning. Unfortunately the late-period power play provided more cause for concern rather than hope. Ryan Suter who normally just throws weak wrist shots on goal decided to let go a slap shot and he struck a screening Jason Zucker square in the knee cap that sent the speedy winger to the ice in some serious pain. He would hobble off the ice with some help from the team’s training staff, very careful to not put any weight on his right leg at all. Hopefully its just a bruise. Later in the same power play, a misplay of the puck near the blueline almost turned into a breakaway for the Oilers before a desperation hold by Jonas Brodin on Ryan Nugent-Hopkins prevented a shot but also negated the man advantage in the process. The Wild will start the 2nd on the penalty kill. Beyond Granlund, Ennis’ hustle and Stalock’s play it wasn’t that great of an opening period for Minnesota.
2nd Period Thoughts: Both teams would trade chances throughout most of the 2nd period. It started off with a penalty killing effort that could best be described as scrambly as the Wild were desperate reaching and sweeping at pucks hoping to alleviate the pressure. The Wild would earn a power play of their own as Prosser would draw an interference penalty on Caggiula after he took offense to the Elk River-native’s hit near mid-ice. Yet on the man advantage it was mostly a practice in frustration as Mike Reilly let go a shot from the point that drew a save from Cam Talbot and then as the Wild tried to crash the crease the puck would be swatted out of the zone giving the Oilers a 2-on-1 and it was Zack Kassian feeding Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for an easy shorthanded tally. 1-0 Edmonton. Mathew Dumba would get caught pinching near the Oilers’ crease and that led to the easy 2-on-1. Minnesota still had some power play time to work with and they came close to tying the game as Koivu redirected a shot off the right post and then couldn’t jam home the loose puck before the officials blew the play dead. Yet the Wild would strike a few minutes later as Mikael Granlund set up Dumba for a one-timer that he knucklepuck’d by Talbot tying the game at 1-1. The Oilers would try to counter immediately by raising their tempo and the Wild seemed to struggle dealing with Edmonton’s speed. McDavid would charge into the Wild zone prompting him to be tackled by Niederreiter for an easy call. Fortunately the Wild’s penalty kill was fairly solid and they were able to keep the Oilers off the scoreboard, for a little while at least. After the big kill the Wild would again be under attack this time by Draisaitl who charged in and was stood up by Suter who then attempted a weak pass out of the zone that was swept up by Milan Lucic who fired it by Stalock from the high slot. 2-1 Oilers. McDavid kept drawing penalties with his speed and the Wild will start the 3rd on the penalty kill.
3rd Period Thoughts: The Wild would manage to kill off the power play and they’d try to go back on the attack. Tyler Ennis appeared to raise his game and I thought he was particularly dangerous in the offensive zone as he used his ability to change directions quickly where he helped create some quality opportunities. Chris Stewart would ring a shot off the left post on a shot taken on the rush. Off a faceoff in the Edmonton zone, Dumba would try to step up on Lucic who just powered through the defenseman and then had a 2-on-1 where he saucered a pass to Jesse Puljujarvi who got a quick shot on goal that Stalock stopped but he’d jam home the rebound to give Oilers a 3-1 lead. It was a deflating goal as the Wild were starting to build some momentum offensively. The Wild would continue to try to apply pressure off the rush and Stewart set up Dumba for a bomb from the point that beat Talbot cleanly. 3-2 Oilers with 5 minutes left and it seemed like the Wild may have a chance to tie it up. A late cross-checking call on Jason Zucker would put the Wild a man down with about 2 minutes left which really compromised the Wild’s ability to really pour it on in the last two minutes and they’d fall 3-2.
Alex Stalock played well enough to give the Wild a chance as he had 26 saves in the loss. Defensively, the Wild got caught pinching multiple times and that led to two fairly simple 2-on-1 goals. Stalock got ran into by McDavid in the 3rd period and in another sequence he seemed to struggle to get back up after he stretched for a save. Dumba had two goals, but you could argue he gave up two since it was his actions which set up those odd-man opportunities for the Oilers. The penalty kill was perfect, but the Wild are spending way too much time killing penalties.
Offensively the Wild didn’t get much beyond a handful of players (Granlund, Ennis, Dumba) and right now there are way too many passengers on this club. Coyle, Niederreiter and Zucker were mostly invisible and Mikko Koivu can’t buy a goal even if it was gift wrapped for him. People can say that’s bad luck etc, but its still lots of shots to the crest of goalies and unless they have some rare condition where they have a hole in their body I don’t think its going to get the job done.
I wouldn’t say this was a heartcrushing loss, but it certainly felt like a missed opportunity. The Oilers came to play while the Wild wanted to show up for part of the game and hope it’d be good enough to come away with 2 points. If the Wild play like this tomorrow evening in Chicago they will get blown out. At this point, your guess is as good as Bruce Boudreau’s as what to expect out of the club. I don’t think he knows what’s got this team being so hit or miss with its effort. The only good thing is we won’t have to wait long to find out the answer.
Wild Notes:
~ The Wild roster was as follows: Mikko Koivu, Mikael Granlund, Jason Zucker, Charlie Coyle, Eric Staal, Nino Niederreiter, Joel Eriksson Ek, Marcus Foligno, Chris Stewart, Daniel Winnik, Matt Cullen, Tyler Ennis, Ryan Suter, Mathew Dumba, Jonas Brodin, Ryan Murphy, Mike Reilly and Nate Prosser. Steve Michalek backed up Alex Stalock. Gustav Olofsson and Zack Mitchell were the healthy scratches for today’s game.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star Milan Lucic, 2nd Star Connor McDavid, 3rd Star Mathew Dumba
~ Attendance was 19,034 at Xcel Energy Center.
Iowa Wild Report:
Record: (13-8-5) 32pts 3rd in the AHL Central
18.5% Power Play (9th in the AHL)
88.1% Penalty Kill (3rd in the AHL)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #12 Pat Cannone ~ 10G 10A = 20pts
2. #25 Justin Kloos ~ 7G 12A = 19pts
3. #7 Sam Anas ~ 7G 10A = 17pts
4. #36 Colton Beck ~ 6G 10A = 16pts
5. #9 Cal O’Reilly ~ 5G 11A = 16pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #3 Nick Seeler ~ 37 PIM’s
2. #28 Carson Soucy ~ 29 PIM’s
3. #44 Christoph Bertschy ~ 26 PIM’s
Top Goaltender:
1. #35 Niklas Svedberg (7-7-3) 2.76GAA .909%SP 1SO
Recent Score: Iowa 3, Milwaukee 2 OT
Like the big club, the Iowa Wild are making a habit of going beyond regulation and that trend would continue on Friday as they went to overtime for the 5th time in their last 6 games. The Admirals would jump out to an early lead with a power play tally just prior to the 4-minutes mark of the game as Trevor Smith jammed a puck by Niklas Svedberg. 1-0 Milwaukee. The Wild rally back with a goal of their own as Christoph Bertschy tapped home a nice pass from Colton Beck to tie it up going into the 1st intermission. Iowa would then take the lead late in the 2nd period as Sam Anas blasted a one-timer by Anders Lindback to give the Wild a 2-1 lead. In the 3rd period, the Wild continued to apply pressure, even on the penalty kill as Luke Kunin was denied on a shorthanded breakaway by Lindback who made a nice glove save. The missed opportunities by the Wild would give the Admirals the opportunity to tie the game and they did so as Emil Pettersson scored on a redirection of a Trevor Murphy point shot sending the game to overtime. In overtime the Wild were patient and waited for the right time to strike as Justin Kloos found Anas with a little time and space and the former Quinnipiac star rifled a shot off the post and in just 55 seconds into the extra session to give Iowa a 3-2 victory. Svedberg had 21 saves in the win. Anas had 2 goals, while Beck and Zach Palmquist both finished the evening with two assists each. Iowa’s next game is tonight (at 7PM CST) against the Chicago Wolves.
Wild Prospect Report:
RW – Ivan Lodnia (Erie, OHL) ~ the skilled winger has emerged into a source of consistency for a rebuilding Otters squad. On Friday, Lodnia had two assists (both primary) and 5 shots on goal in Erie’s 3-2 overtime loss to Barrie. Lodnia has 16 goals, 36 points, 12 PIM’s and is a +5 in 33 games.
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