Minnesota Wild: Late Power Play Leads to Wild Loss in Philadephia

The Minnesota Wild lost a tough one last night late in Philadelphia. The late power play goal by the Flyers and the Wild’s inability to get the equalizing goal made a situation where the one mistake downed an otherwise strong effort.

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Stop me if this sounds familiar, the Minnesota Wild play a very solid game but end up just short by a goal. I don’t say this to bring up a completely negative tone, but just to point out that the Wild are playing a consistent game largely game-in and game-out and their wins and losses are coming down to one to two pivotal mistakes.

Last night in Philadelphia that pivotal mistake was giving the second best power play in the NHL their third opportunity just after the half way mark of the third period. In a tie hockey game the idea of giving the Flyers a chance to be on the power play seemed just like the absolute wrong thing to do.

Sure penalties are inevitable and the Wild are boasting the sixth best PK in the league, so they could have killed it off and marched to the tie. But in a game where the Wild were doing just about everything right and still coming up short of the go ahead, they just didn’t want to hand an advantage to the Flyers and they did.

Nov 12, 2016; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Flyers goalie Steve Mason (35) makes a save on Minnesota Wild center Eric Staal (12) during the third period of the game at the Wells Fargo Center. The flyers won the game 3-2. Mandatory Credit: John Geliebter-USA TODAY Sports /

The issue for the Wild was that if the Flyers scored on the power play sure there was about eight to six minutes to get the equalizer, but they weren’t getting enough pucks on net to Steve Mason. The Flyers were blocking tons of shots (12 blocks for those of you counting at home) and so Mason was able to see everything piece of rubber that made it on him with no problems.

The Wild were going to have an issue in this game with the defense of the Flyers clogging up shooting lanes. It goes back to their inability to get the gritty goal and move to the net. Their bench boss has constantly tried to get the Wild to score those close in dirty goals, but alas it just hasn’t happened.

If the Wild want to be able to be resilient to beat a late power play goal like the one that was scored last night on them, they need to have a surefire way to score goals in all situations. If the defense isn’t giving you the shooting lanes, and the goaltender is making strong one-on-one saves then you’ve got to try to find ways to get in his face and get one past him.