Looking for a response after a no-show performance in Philadelphia, the Minnesota Wild played one of their best games of the season against the Washington Capitals but fell 3-2 in a shootout thanks to Darcy Kuemper’s 39-save performance, then 0-for-7 tries in the shootout. John Carlson had the lone shootout goal in Round 7.
Special teams not great again
One game after Dean Evason said the Wild turned the puck over more than 40 times in Philly, the Wild gave up 14 shots through two periods and only allowed one high-danger scoring chance, according to Natural Stat Trick. But special teams hurt. The Wild went 0-for-5 on the power play, and gave up a short-handed goal and one power-play goal on three chances. The power-play goal against just showed how thin they are with Jared Spurgeon out of the lineup. Jake Middleton took a sloppy penalty, so after using Jonas Brodin and Brock Faber on the first shift, assistant coach Bob Woods had to go with Jon Merrill and Dakota Mermis (the only other real choice was offensive defenseman Calen Addison).
The Wild’s power play is 4-for-30 this season and they’ve allowed seven power-play goals on 25 short-handed situations. Fleury made five saves on a solid kill, however, in the third period in which Brodin and Faber played virtually every second.
Top line performs better
Two hours after Evason publicly eviscerated them for their game in Philadelphia, Kirill Kaprizov-Ryan Hartman-Mats Zuccarello got a breakaway tying goal from Hartman, were more careful with the puck and combined for 13 shots. Evason wants much more from a line that two games earlier combined for 10 points and 24 shot attempts. Evason called their game “really bad” and “awful” in Philadelphia and took one heck of a potshot when he said he wasn’t sitting Jujhar Khaira for two unbelievable turnovers in his own end on the same shift the night before.
“We would be sitting them first,” Evason said, before adding, “We spoke to them and they’re very accountable. But I would say, you have to bring it every night. If you’re gonna be leaders on our hockey club, and you’re gonna play the most minutes, you better do the most right things. And they did not.”
Playing on the second of a back-to-back and with the Wild so bad defensively the night before, Evason opted to sit Khaira and play seven defensemen. That led to 21-year-old Daemon Hunt’s NHL debut. The 2020 third-round pick didn’t see a lot of ice time with his parents, Doug and Renee, in the stands (five shifts totaling 4:12 through 40 minutes), but his first NHL shift came alongside 2011 first-round pick and Wild lifer Jonas Brodin.
Hunt got away with one rough moment in the second when he iced the puck, then couldn’t fend off Alex Ovechkin’s soon-to-be erased 825th career goal. That’s because the Wild challenged that Ovechkin was offside upon the entry and were correct.
Turning point
After the Ovechkin goal was overturned in the second, the Wild overcame the two missed opportunities on the power play and got the tying goal 1:16 into the third period when Hartman picked off a pass to the point and scored a terrific tying breakaway goal.
Three stars
1. Darcy Kuemper, Capitals: Former Wild goalie kept Washington in a game where the Wild had the majority of the chances in the first two periods. He made 39 saves, including an overtime-saving breakaway stop on Marcus Johansson.
2. Marc-Andre Fleury, Wild: After a tough start in his last outing against the Kings, Fleury was tremendous, especially in a spotless 17-save third period.
3. Marco Rossi, Wild: Gave the Wild an early 1-0 lead with a snipe, created plays all night and had four shots (six attempted).
Quotes of the night
“I liked the way we played tonight. Much better than last night.” — Fleury
“It was surreal looking across the ice in warmups and seeing Ovi.” — Hunt
“It would have been nice to get rewarded for that.” — Evason
(Photo: Patrick Smith / Getty Images)
