The Minnesota Wild went down to the Toronto Maple Leafs 5-3 on Saturday night, but didn’t go down without a fight.
On the night, the Minnesota Wild vastly out-shot their opponent to the tune of 41 shots to 23, but despite that, they succumbed to a 5-3 loss on their home ice. Far from letting all of the talk around the newly re-signed William Nylander distract them; it actually seemed to focus the resurgent Maple Leafs.
Of all the players to net a goal against them too, Tyler Ennis, who the Minnesota Wild let go in the summer, was one of them. He managed just 8 goals in a whole season with the Wild, the goal against them is his 4th this year already, whilst fulfilling fourth-line duties.
Far from struggling though, the Minnesota Wild actually seemed like they may come out of the game with at least a point. They were down 2-0 early on and showed a lot of fight to bring the game to a 3-3 tie with five minutes left in the third period.
Unfortunately though, they suffered the ignominy of some bad puck luck when Nazem Kadri‘s late game-winner bounced off Nick Seeler to deflect past Devan Dubnyk in the Wild net.
The sheer volume of shots they put on net was testament to how much the Minnesota Wild wanted a result. Unfortunately, the Maple Leafs’ goalie Frederick Andersen, showed form that Dubnyk at the other end hasn’t been able to of late.
The result can’t be hung on one player individually, but there were some certain frailties in the Minnesota team’s performance that need addressing.