Minnesota Wild Prospects Lose to St. Louis Blues In OT
By Scott Drain
Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher and Head Coach hope to have some tough decisions to make as prospects move on in NHL Prospect Tournament Mandatory Credit: Brace Hemmelgarn-USA TODAY Sports
The Minnesota Wild Prospect team lost for the second time at the NHL Prospects Tournament in Traverse City Michigan. Friday night they did rally late in the third period to knot the game at two goals apiece before losing to the St. Louis Blues prospects 3-2 in less than a minute into overtime. Carter Sandlak and Raphael Bussieres each pitcked up a power play goal to tie the contest at 2. Neither team was able to score in the first period as both Blues net minder Jordan Binnington and Johan Gustafsson
Although the Wild forced overtime, it also found itself in a hole entering the third after a pair of second-period goals from Blues forward Ty Rattie. Rattie didn’t waste much time in the second to give St. Louis a 1-0 lead, scoring just 13 seconds into the frame, unassisted. He gave the Blues a 2-0 lead a few minutes later at 4:37. The Wild would finally break the scoring drought with just 2:34 left in the game as Carter Sandlak scored a power play goal with assists going to Alex Basso and Tyler Graovac. The Wild tied the score at 2 with less than a minute remaining in regulation on a goal by Raphael Bussieres with the helpers going to Eric Haula and Mathew Dumba. The overtime session lasted less than a minute as Blues forward William Carrier scored on a feed from Dmitrij Jaskin ending the game. The Wild are now 0-1-1 in two tournament games. They have Saturday off before facing the Dallas Stars Prospects at 2:00 pm on Sunday. I know the purpose of this tournament is to evaluate teams prospects in a game environment before the regular training camps open. There will be bright spots and some players will be playing their last games in a Wild sweater. Overall the Wild seem to have a plethora of good young players in their system. It’s tough to develop much team chemistry in just a few days of playing together. Over the next couple of games it would be nice to see a couple of players break away from the pack and generate some real excitement heading into training camp. Minnesota Wild Chuck Fletcher and Wild Head Coach hope to have some tough decisions to make as the prospects go from playing other prospects to facing off with veteran NHL players when training camps open next week. GonePuckWild.com will continue to bring you coverage of the NHL prospects tournament and as always this is Scott Drain chanting, “Let’s Go Wild!”