Game Recap: Wild Lose Four Straight Games, Devils Win 3-1

The Minnesota Wild ended  a three-game road trip at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey with a 3-1 Loss at the hands of the New Jersey Devils.

Good evening and Happy Veterans Day, Wild fans. Tonight, facing a Devils squad returning home after four straight losses, the Wild looked flat. Ryan Carter‘s fluky shorthanded goal proved to be the only shot to beat Cory Schneider as the Wild lose four straight games and hand the Devils their first win in 5 games. Once again, the Wild outshot and outchanced their opponent but couldn’t put away several premium scoring chances. Read Tyler’s great game preview HERE Let’s get to my notes:

First Period:

Is Jacques Lemaire coaching both of these squads again? A defensively sound first period certainly led me to believe so. The Wild had tough luck early in a very evenly paced game. New Jersey  had much better zone pressure through the first and limited the Wild to spurts of a few shots at a time.

Marco Scandella seems to have really developed his shot this season, putting a hard slapper on to Schneider early on.

Jason Zucker, Erik Haula, and Nino Niederreiter displayed their wheels tonight, simply flying through the neutral zone with every chance they could. New Jersey’s aggressive shot blocking prevented much from getting through to Schneider, though.

Scandella, who finds himself in the sin-bin a lot lately, took a hooking penalty on Patrik Elias around the 8 minute mark. This is the only time I’ll say this, but it may have been a justifiable penalty as Elias and Martin Havlat motored in to the zone as a two-on-one. I think he probably prevented a goal and the ensuing penalty kill for the Wild was awesome, allowing zero shots on goal. I thought for a minute that Jaromir Jagr was doing wind sprints down the ice. Make somebody else go get it, Mr. DeBoer

Minnesota native, Golden Gopher alumni, and rookie defenseman Seth Helgeson sent the Wild to their much maligned power play a few minutes later. The power play units haven’t changed at all, with Mike Yeo and Andrew Brunette taking a “veterans and new guys” approach. The veterans fared much better, with Jason Pominville putting a beauty of a shot on goal from the middle of the slot that forced Schneider to actually work for his money.

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The Wild got a second power play chance a few minutes later with Michael Ryder hooking Mikael Granlund. Ryan Suter had a one-timer from the point that bounced off Schneider. Pominville picked up the rebound and chipped away a few times, but Schneider stopped them all and the Devils cleared. The Wild’s power play needs some help. Despite Jonathon Blum having a great night, I think the Wild missed Mathew Dumba on special teams tonight. Their point men were not… on point. That should be my last pun, but you better read on to be sure.

I counted 4 or 5 Devils icings in the back half of the first period. They all seemed rather senseless as the Wild never quite got their zone game going.

Not much else to report on the first. More on Blum later.

Shots through one period: Minnesota Wild 6, New Jersey Devils 6

Second Period:

Again, two icing calls in under a minute for the Devils to open the frame, which is odd to me.

Scandella absolutely steamrolled Jacob Josefson in the defensive zone, drawing yet another penalty, this time for interference. The Wild penalty kill allowed zero shots or Corsi events. The PK gets a lot of practice, so I guess I wouldn’t expect any less.

The Elias – Havlat odd-man rush seemed to happen a bunch tonight.

Helgeson, playing in his first ever NHL game got his first point in the big leagues as Tuomo Ruutu opened the scoring by deflecting Helgeson’s point blast. The Wild kept chasing their own tail just before this goal, giving the Devils eons to set up the play. Ruutu’s deflection came from the left face-off circle and caromed right inside the pipe. 1-0 Devils at 05:42 of the second. 

Blum had a really nice snap shot that Schneider had to bobble a bit to freeze shortly after the Ruutu goal.

Minnesota’s best chance of the game came just after Pominville won a post-icing face-off in the offensive zone. Granlund teed up a beautiful shot that hit the crossbar, fell to the blue paint and bounced off the back of Schneider. Miraculously, the Devils keeper was able to paddle the puck off the goal line milliseconds before it crossed. It may have crossed, but since there’s no review allowed in hockey, we’ll never know.

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Puck Prose

Mike Cammalleri, freshly back from injury, put the Devils up by a pair thanks to a lucky bounce off a Jagr rebound. Granlund was covering the open side of the net and looked extremely frustrated following the goal. I don’t think there was much he could do. 2-0 Devils at 09:53 of the second.

The Wild tightend up defensively and tried to maintain better zone pressure, briefly taking the lead in Corsi events in a very tight game.

Blum took a tripping penalty, which may have been his only glaring mistake of the game, to close out the middle frame. Again, the Wild held the Devils to zero shots on goal with the man advantage.

Shots through two periods: Minnesota Wild 16, New Jersey Devils 16

Third Period:

Steve Bernier took a cross-checking penalty drawn by Nate Prosser about a minute in. Before the power play could set up, a frustrated Charlie Coyle took a double minor for high-sticking.  The Coyle penalty resulted in 1 minute of 4-on-4 followed by 3 minutes of Devil’s PP.

As it turns out, this was a good thing. Despite allowing the Devils to put a few shots on Darcy Kuemper, a turnover by Patrik Elias led to the Wild’s lone goal of the game. Kyle Brodziak snagged Elias’ turnover and put a pass out intended for Ryan Carter. Carter couldn’t connect with and instead recovered the puck along the boards, spun a shot an errant pass intended for Scandella towards the crease. Somehow, the puck got past a retreating Schneider’s skate and in to the goal. 2-1 Devils at 05:24 of the 3rd.

Killing off the remainder of the penalty, it finally felt like the Wild got back to their ways. Mikko Koivu played a great game, especially in the third. He forced several turnovers and controlled a ton of the play.

Thomas Vanek and Erik Haula had a two-man breakaway that was beautiful with about 5 minutes left. Vanek passed off to Haula, forcing Schneider to drop from the butterfly to his belly. Using an outstretched pad, Schneider denied Haula entirely. All Haula needed to do was elevate the puck just a little more and he would have tied the game.

With less than a minute left and Darcy Kuemper trying desperately to get to the bench like a 5th grader who’s late for the bus, Scandella created a too many men on the ice penalty. Personally, I think Scandella should have served this, but he didn’t.

The Wild won the face-off, iced the puck, and pulled Kuemper so they could play 5-on-5 with an empty net. The Desperation moved proved futile as Travis Zajac put home an empty netter to seal the victory for the Devils.

Final shots on goal: Minnesota Wild 24, New Jersey Devils 23

Devils Win 3-1, Wild lose four straight games.

Trembley’s Take:

Of all the losses this season, this one is the most frustrating to me. The Devils had lost four straight coming in to this game. Cory Schneider, who has yet to rest a game, had a .901 save percentage and a 3.00 GAA entering this game. The Wild are taking on beatable teams and losing, plain and simple.

Once again, the Wild outshot and outchanced their opponent. Since November 4th, the Wild have the second best Fenwick close in the league at 59.77% per war-on-ice. The Wild are controlling play, winning battles, and possessing the puck but still losing. In the 4 losses, the Wild have been outscored by a combined 13-3. Two of the Wild goals were scored shorthanded.

Charlie Coyle is in a slump, but it’s hard to single the guy out on a team that’s looked downright miserable. I think it’s time to move Nino Niederreiter up with Koivu and Zucker and move Coyle down. Nino never seems to have lost his grit where Coyle has. Putting him on a checking line can only help his cause. Coyle’s going to be very good in time, I just think he’s in the wrong spot.

Jon Blum had a great game I thought. He looked poised and in control through every shift. He also played a good transition game, which the Wild were lacking a bit thanks to injuries on the blue line. Blum was tied with Jonas Brodin as the defenseman with the best Corsi for percentage at 58% tonight. That’s pretty dang good for a 3rd pairing d-man.

The Wild take on the hapless Buffalo Sabres this Thursday at the X. This is a must win game that the Wild cannot overlook. If the playoffs started tomorrow, the Wild would be in the lottery for Connor McDavid rather than the Stanley Cup race.

Talk to you Thursday, Wild fans.