Wild bend but don’t break, avoid what would have been their worst collapse in history

Dec 4, 2022; Dallas, Texas, USA; Minnesota Wild center Frederick Gaudreau (89) scores the game winning goal against Dallas Stars goaltender Scott Wedgewood (41) during the overtime shootout period at the American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports
By Michael Russo
Dec 5, 2022

DALLAS — Only Marc-Andre Fleury could smile after a game that looked to give Freddy Chabot indigestion. The Wild’s goalie coach was white as a ghost during the postgame elevator ride from the press box to the bottom of American Airlines Center.

“Phew!” Fleury said as a reporter crept over to his stall following the Wild’s … wild 6-5 shootout win over the Dallas Stars.

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That 3-hour, 45-minute flight from the Big D to Calgary, then 70-minute drive up to Kananaskis Village, Alberta, in zero-degree temperature in the pitch-dark Sunday night came so, so, so close to feeling like the longest flight and bus ride in the history of Minnesota Wild aviation.

Instead, as Fleury said after rolling his eyes and wiping his brow, “There will be smiles on the plane. We just tried to put on a good show for the fans.”

The fans in Dallas, maybe. The fans watching on TV back in Minnesota surely had accelerated heart rates, were spewing f-bombs and without a shadow of doubt felt like hurling during this roller coaster of a contest.

“We made it a little bit more exciting than we wanted,” center Joel Eriksson Ek said after the Wild’s sixth win in seven games and second on consecutive afternoons.

The Wild avoided the most epic meltdown in franchise history by escaping with a second point after their four-goal, third-period lead vanished in what felt like a snap of the fingers.

But after a scoreless overtime, Mats Zuccarello, Kirill Kaprizov and Freddy Gaudreau, who scored in overtime in Dallas back in April, went 3-for-3 in the shootout against Scott Wedgewood after the Wild chased Jake Oettinger after two periods.

The Wild bent. They definitely broke.

But they somehow patched themselves up again and fled from what could have been the first surrendering of a four-goal lead for a defeat in Wild history.

“They really came at us at the end there,” Eriksson Ek said. “And for us, it was just trying to survive and push back that momentum.”

Eriksson Ek extended the Wild’s 4-1 lead to 5-1 a mere 29 seconds into the third period, but nobody could have realized just how critical that goal would be against the Central Division-leading Stars. However, this was a talented opponent that does have a habit of coming back, not to the mention the fact they’ve won 12 games the past two seasons when trailing after two periods.

“We gave up a little too many chances,” said Eriksson Ek, who has five goals and eight assists in his past eight games.

Especially through the neutral zone and middle of the defensive zone.

The Stars kept coming and easily skated through the Wild, who made life way too easy on them. The Kaprizov-Sam Steel-Zuccarello line was minus-3 and on for two straight Stars goals in the third.

Roope Hintz, who had a hat trick and one assist before his shot slid through the crease in the shootout after Fleury gave up goals to the first two Dallas shooters, Jason Robertson and Mason Marchment had too much time and space to convert in the third. It was those three who scored goals 2:47 apart to cut the Wild’s lead to 5-4. The Wild calmed things down for more than a seven-minute stretch aided by a Radek Faksa penalty before Hintz tied the score at 5-5 with an extra attacker.

The final 2:11 of regulation had to feel like an eternity for the Wild, especially their coach, Dean Evason, who left the arena willingly with his timeout still in his holster.

“It was calm. It was, honestly,” Evason said when explaining why he didn’t try to stop momentum himself. “We had a good discussion with the group after. A lot of coaching staffs would call a timeout at some point, and I guess if we didn’t (win) we might be second-guessed.

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“But if our group wasn’t going up and down the bench saying the right things and being calm — nobody’s panicking, nobody’s snapping, just saying all the right things, … they had (control). Obviously, (the Stars) pushed and we gave up a big lead. But did we quit? Did we shut it down? Did we stop playing? No. They just kept going about their business.”

Had Gaudreau not buried his gorgeous shootout winner, Evason may have been singing a different tune.

No doubt he was playing the result with his postgame comments. But the coach insisted that the Wild should use the survival as a “positive situation” as they continue their four-game trip into western Canada starting Wednesday night against the Flames.

And let’s be real: The Stars also had to deal with an onslaught of Wild goals 2:50 apart in the second period.

The game was initially billed as Kaprizov versus Robertson. The talented youngsters were 1-2 in the Calder Trophy race two years ago with Kaprizov winning in a near unanimous landslide.

Robertson is leading the NHL with 23 goals after scoring a goal and assist Sunday to extend his point streak to 18 games (21 goals, 34 points in that span) — two off Brian Bellows’ franchise record of 20 games set with the North Stars in 1986.

But it was Kaprizov who wasted no time getting the Wild going with his 16th goal on a power play.

Not only did Kaprizov tie his own goal streak record of six consecutive games that he shared with Nino Niederreiter and Brian Rolston, he tied the franchise point-streak record held by Kevin Fiala and Mikael Granlund by recording a point in a 12th consecutive game (eight goals, 19 points).

But earlier this season, it felt like Kaprizov had to do it all offensively for the Wild. Now, a big reason for the Wild’s run of wins lately is improved secondary scoring.

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That proved true again after Hintz tied the score early in the second period.

With the Wild making tired mistakes after playing the day before at home and getting severely outshot, Connor Dewar sparked things by turning on the jets to blow by Ryan Suter and catch up to Mason Shaw’s chip out of the zone. It amounted to the Wild’s league-leading fifth short-handed goal and Dewar’s second.

From there, Ryan Reaves registered his first career two-assist game by helping create goals by Jake Middleton and Jordan Greenway 15 seconds apart for a 4-1 lead.

At that point, Oettinger, who entered with the fourth-best save percentage in the NHL (.923), had given up four goals on 13 shots and had his day ended after facing his 16th shot.

But then Eriksson Ek welcomed Wedgewood to the action by immediately deflecting in Jared Spurgeon’s point shot for a 5-1 lead.

“We were fortunate to get as big a lead as we did because we needed it,” Evason said.

Fleury, who was so good in the first two periods when the Wild desperately needed him to be, did his best to hold down the fort during the Stars’ impressive third-period push.

“I was just trying to relax,” Fleury said. “Try to take deep breaths right after every goal. There were a lot of goals. You always believe you can stop the next one. Good plays. Nice goals. But it was the type of game that we should and we could close out. Not make it so stressful.”

The Wild just completed a 5-2, seven-game homestand, so this four-game road trip comes at a good time.

Reaves is new. They have callups with Nic Petan, Joseph Cramarossa and Andrej Sustr now in the fold.

They’ll head to the Alberta mountains for their version of an Amazing Race on Monday before practicing Tuesday. They’ll stay at a cool lodge, have some team dinners, hang by the fire.

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“It’ll be fun getting up in the snow,” Reaves said. “Got the Canada Goose (jacket), some Timberlands, a couple toques. I need to buy some mittens though. My fingers are getting cold, but it’s going to be fun.”

Especially after nearly cratering for what would have been the worst collapse in the Wild’s 22 years, yet somehow surviving for four points thanks to a pair of shootout wins in 24 hours.

“We did a good job staying cool and calm,” Gaudreau said. “There’s nothing you can do but the next shift. If you keep feeling the pressure, it keeps coming at you. We ended up getting the job done.”

(Photo of Frederick Gaudreau and Scott Wedgewood: Jerome Miron / USA Today)

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Michael Russo

Michael Russo is a senior writer covering the Minnesota Wild and the National Hockey League for The Athletic. He has covered the NHL since 1995 (Florida Panthers) and the Wild since 2005, previously for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Minneapolis Star Tribune. Michael is a four-time Minnesota Sportswriter of the Year and in 2017 was named the inaugural Red Fisher Award winner as best beat writer in the NHL. Michael can be seen on Bally Sports North and the NHL Network; and heard on KFAN (100.3 FM) and podcasts "Worst Seats in the House" (talknorth.com), "The Athletic Hockey Show" on Wednesdays and "Straight From the Source" (The Athletic). Follow Michael on Twitter @RussoHockey