Minnesota Wild Power Play Fails to Secure Victory, Lightning Win 2-1

1. 98. Final. 2. 23

The Wild power play failed the Minnesota Wild entirely, costing Minnesota the victory, two points, and a season sweep of the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Remember how excited we were when the Wild sent Steven Stamkos and the Lightning back to Florida with a 7-2 loss? Tonight at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida, the Bolts exacted their revenge. In a much lower scoring affair, the Wild allowed a power play goal while failing to score one themselves.

First Period:

Tampa Bay came out to prove that they are a better team than the one that lost 7 to 2 in St. Paul last month. Steven Stamkos and Company pressure of the Wild early and put them on their heels through the first five minutes, holding a while without a shot or really any extended zone time. I think this is most evident by Jared Spurgeon clearing attempt that hit a Lightning defender squarely in the chest.

I thought that the Thomas Vanek – Charlie Coyle – Jason Zucker line was easily the best on the ice the whole first period. Coyle had several good chances and close, but the massive Ben Bishop turned each away, seemingly whether he knew or not.

Darcy Kuemper was very good again tonight, although you didn’t have to make any stellar saves he certainly had to read the puck well, which I think he did.

A Wild power-play never really materialized, although it did help them take away some Lightning momentum. Their first attempt came around the 7th minute of the first. Managing one meager shot, the man advantage was as bad as I think we’ve seen

I also thought Mikael Granlund and Zach Parise played very well together, executing a perfect takeaway in the 16th minutes to maintain zone pressure and get a couple of shots off.

Shots after one period: Minnesota Wild 7, Tampa Bay Lightning 8.

Second period:

Jason Zucker opened the second frame on the top line as Jason Pominville missed the first few minutes getting repairs to his ear.

Early in the season, in fact all the way up to the Pittsburgh Penguins game, the Wild were the best second period team in the NHL. Things have slowly started to rebound back to where we expect, but the Wild took the chance to open the scoring thanks to a great play by Vanek.

Zach Parise picked the pocket of

Mark Barberio

at the offensive blue line to keep the offense alive. Collecting a pass from Parise who was tied up on the half-boards, Vanek earned the full attention of Ben Bishop and displayed incredible patience in holding on to the puck. Parise hustled back to the play in front of a wide open goalmouth. From there, a quick pass by Vanek and a snap shot by Parise and the Wild were on the board.

1-0 Wild at 03:55 of the second period.

A Ryan Carter hooking penalty gave the Bolts a chance to tie up the game. With one of our top penalty killing forwards in the box, Tampa Bay had nearly the entire two minutes to set up in the zone, converting with their second shot on goal. Near the end of the power play, Stamkos rifled home his 14th goal of the year from the top of the right face-off circle. According to the game log, Stamkos had been on the ice for a staggering 2 minutes and 19 seconds. The Wild penalty killers had been out for just over a minute and looked tired, but never cleared the puck far enough out of the zone to change. 1-1 tie at 13:42 of the second.

Towards the end of the period, Alex Killorn deflected a Ryan Callahan shot past a sprawling Kuemper to put the Bolts up by one. I don’t have much to say on this one, it was a good play after several failed clearing attempts by the Wild. 2-1 Tampa Bay at 18:07 of the second.

Ryan Suter took a cross-checking penalty against Stamkos in the final minute of the period, giving the Wild 18 minutes to figure out how to stop the Tampa Bay power play.

Shots after two periods: Minnesota Wild 19, Tampa Bay Lightning 19

Third period:

The Wild killed off their remaining penalty time and started to push back.

Brian Boyle tripping Marco Scandella sent the Wild to an early power play in the third. With a chance to tie, the Wild produced a great product, especially Nino Niederreiter. The Wild consistently held the zone for nearly the full two minutes and Niederreiter came close to knocking home a rebound that Bishop barely snagged.

The Wild had every opportunity to tie the game with the man advantage and didn’t, but they got another chance late.

With under 2 minutes left, Mathew Dumba drew a penalty in the offensive zone and the Wild set up on the attack, even pulling Kuemper with 30 or so seconds left in the game. This yielded one shot on goal and two hit posts. That’s all. The game ended with the Wild outshooting the Bolts, out chancing the bolts, and failing to convert with a 6-on-4. Game Over: Bolts win 2-1 in regulation.

Final Shots on goal: Minnesota Wild 31, Tampa Bay Lightning 28.

Trembley’s Take:

This game reminds me of the Pacific road trip early in the year where the Wild outshot their opponent and managed better zone pressure but still lost two close games. The difference here is that the Wild didn’t play an effective 60 minutes of hockey. The can’t keep resting on a third period comeback, because it just doesn’t happen often enough.