Wild Manage Overtime Win in Dallas After Poor Second Period
98. Final. 4ot. 119. 5
After allowing four straight goals by the Dallas Stars, the Minnesota Wild looked to be in position to lose their second consecutive game in embarrassing fashion. An extra attacker goal by Thomas Vanek near the end of of regulation was followed swiftly by Marco Scandella’s tap-in goal for the overtime win.
The young guns for the Minnesota Wild stepped up in a big way early. Nino Niederreiter, Jason Zucker, and Mikael Granlund scored the first three goals for the Wild. Jonas Brodin, freshly returned from a wicked bout of the Mumps, logged 22:38 of ice time. All in all, it was a great game for the youngsters.
Before we get to my notes, don’t forget to check out GPW’s game preview by Dustin.
First Period:
The first period undoubtedly belonged to the Wild. It took 6 minutes for the Dallas Stars to register a shot on goal. By then, the Wild had 3 shots that reached Kari Lehtonen and 4 that were blocked or missed the net.
Jamie Oleksiak sent the Wild to the power play at 03:30 by kneeing Zucker. Zucker briefly left the game but returned. I couldn’t see clearly if it was Zucker’s previously injured leg. Oleksiak is relatively new to the league and has no suspension history, so I don’t expect there to be any supplemental discipline. Check back with GPW and we’ll update you if we hear more.
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Puck Prose
The ensuing power play was fairly miserable, with the Wild managing just one shot. Near the end of the power play, Mikko Koivu took a senseless interference penalty just outside the face-off circle, negating the final 16 seconds of PP time.
I’ve been exceptionally happy with the Wild’s penalty kill and this outing was no exception. The Stars only managed one shot on goal before Ryan Carter stole the puck from Tyler Seguin at the blue line and set up Niederreiter for a shorthanded bid. Niederreiter couldn’t get the puck past Lehtonen, but the Wild snagged a second shot on goal and had two shots miss the net. Not only was it a great PK by the Wild, it took the wind out of Dallas’ sails.
Niederreiter, Vanek, and Kyle Brodziak ended up linemates, and this paid off early for the Wild, as that line opened the scoring
Jyrki Jokipakka’s clearing attempt from behind Lehtonen found its way to Thomas Vanek in the face-off circle. Vanek found Niederreiter camped out in the slot and he wristed home his 11th of the year over Lehtonen’s glove. Vanek’s been the source of some criticism lately, but I can’t be too harsh on him tonight. It took great playmaking abilities to set up this goal. 1-0 Wild at 08:41 of the first period. Take a look:
Later in the first, Nate Prosser became the latest defeneseman to step up on the rush and it paid dividends for the Wild. Prosser carried the puck in to the offensive zone and fired a soft shot that hit Lehtonen’s leg pad. The puck caromed to Zucker who was crashing the net and Zucker simply flipped the puck up and over Lehtonen’s blocker. 2-0 Wild at 17:29 of the first period.
Prosser earned his second assist of the sason on Zucker’s 9th goal.
Like I said, dominance by the Wild through the first 20 minutes.
Shots after one period: Minnesota Wild 11, Dallas Stars 9
Second Period:
The Wild decided to throw on the breaks after a dominant first period and it nearly cost them. The Stars put on huge pressure and, after the 4th minute of play in the second, completely took over the game from an offensive standpoint. Luckily, Darcy Kuemper stood tall and kept the Wild in the game.
Kyle Brodziak took a cross-checking penalty in the 6th minute and this is when Kuemper made his best save of the game. The Wild had trouble clearing the puck and a Tyler Seguin shot rebounded dangerously to the corner of the crease with no Wild defender in sight. Kuemper flipped around and made a fantastic belly slide across the crease to snatch up the puck on a sure goal.
Granlund earned his third of the year in an odd-man rush with Zach Parise. Crashing the net, he flipped the puck high and past Lehtonen’s blocker. Anybody seeing a trend here? more on that later. 3-0 Wild at 11:47 of the second period.
At this point, I imagine there were quite a few of us who were ready to turn the TV off and catch some extra sleep. Unfortunately, the Stars rebounded in a big way.
Ales Hemsky earned his first goal of the season (finally) after making some sick moves around Ryan Suter and getting the puck underneath Kuemper’s blocker with a quick shot. 3-1 Wild at 16:18 of the second period. At this point, Kuemper had seen 22 shots on goal, with 12 of them in the first 16 minutes of the middle frame.
A couple minutes later, Tyler Seguin got his 18th of the year (you read that right) ona fluky puck bounce. The Wild, in the midst of a long change, allowed Seguin and Jamie Benn to walk in to the zone. Seguin’s first shot seemed to be caught in the trapper of Kuemper, but it bounced out, hit Jared Spurgeon, and landed behind Kuemper who had no chance at stopping Seguin’s second shot. 3-2 Wild at 18:50 of the second period.
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Eyes On Isles
Erik Cole’s shot from the face-off circle with 10 seconds left tied the game. He let loose a slow, rising wrister that was screened perfectly by Nate Prosser. 3-3 Tie at 19:49 of the second period.
As you may have seen on social media, Wild fans became ravenous for Kuemper’s head. Look, folks I get it. he arguably cost us the Los Angeles game; however, by the time Cole’s goal hit the twine, Kuemper had faced 25 shots with 16 of them in the second period. That’s a huge workload put on a young netminder by a team that has a ton of offensive weapons.
Shots after two periods: Minnesota Wild 19, Dallas Stars 25.
Third Period:
Dallas seemed desperate to put this game away early, and it showed in their play.
Jared Spurgeon saved the game early on for the Wild, scooping the puck out of the crease after it bounced behind Kuemper.
Tensions grew high for both teams, as a net front scrum resulted in minor penalties for Erik Haula and Cody Eakin taking minor penalties at 05:32.
The Wild haven’t been very impressive with 4-on-4 play this season, though they did well and survived back to even strength.
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Marco Scandella sent the Stars to the power play in the 9th minute, but the Wild killed that off with relative ease. Haula even had a shorthanded bid, but got robbed with green surrounding him like houses on the holidays.
Around the 13th minute, Niederreiter had his second breakaway bid of the game and clearly got tripped by Kari Lehtonen near the net. Without question in my mind, he should’ve earned a penalty shot. Call it homerism if you want, but he drew a penalty on a clear breakaway.
6 seconds later, the Stars took the lead for the first time all game. Alex Goligoski ripped an absolute beauty of a shot from the right faceoff circle thanks to a 3-on-2 break led by Seguin. 4-3 Stars at 13:29 of the third period. After the play, the camera fanned to Mike Yeo who had some choice words for the referee.
With 2 minutes left, the Wild had their chance to pull Kuemper and, for the first time all season, converted with an empty net.
Thomas Vanek took a gorgeous pass from Parise, turned toward the net and fired a great shot under Lehtonen’s armpit. Maybe now Vanek’s sniping abilities will shine through. 4-4 tie at 18:08 of the third period.
Despite a flurry of chances by Dallas in the waning minute, Kuemper stood tall and the Wild took the game to overtime.
Shots through regulation: Minnesota Wild 31, Dallas Stars 45.
Overtime:
No shots on goal for Dallas and Minnesota converts on its 3rd shot to remain undefeated in overtime.
Marco Scandella earned his 5th goal and second overtime game-winning goal of the season. Jumping in on a rush with Parise and Vanek, Scandella simpy tipped-in a redirect past Lehtonen to steal the second point from the Stars. 5-4 Wild at 2:04 of the overtime to secure an overtime win.
Trembley’s Take
One of my biggest problems with the Los Angeles game was a lack of net-front presence. Tonight, that was clearly no issue with four of the Wild’s five goals coming from the low slot or the crease.
Stu Bickel was suited up tonight and played just over three minutes, with no shifts in the third period. My guess is they want him warmed up for when the Wild play the Blues on Saturday.
If anybody had told me Nino Niederreiter would have 11 goals by the quarter-season mark, I’d have offered them ocean front property in Las Vegas. By the way, Alex Ovechkin, the goal scoring machine, has just one more than Nino. Let that sink in.
The Wild remain undefeated in overtime and are 6-0-0 in the Central Division. The Wild are 2 points behind the Winnipeg jets for 3rd place in the division, but have 3 games in hand. They are in 8th place in the Western Conference. The Stars have yet to beat a Divisional opponent.
Can we give the Kuemper hatred a break? He had a .911 save percentage tonight. He played well, folks. I’ll talk to you Saturday night when the Wild take on the St. Louis Blues.