All things considered, the Wild will gladly accept the three out of four possible points they took from a rigorous weekend of hockey.
But they sure would have loved all four.
The Wild were 4 minutes, 19 seconds away from that Sunday night, but Nashville’s Filip Forsberg capped a tremendous shift by single-handedly creating a tying goal for himself to force overtime before an eventual 3-2 shootout win for the Predators.
Advertisement
The goal came seven seconds after the Wild’s monthlong leaky penalty kill extinguished a late Predators power play. But a convoluted line change and some tired bodies after the kill allowed the smooth-skating, dynamic Forsberg to speed unencumbered through the neutral zone, over the offensive blueline and into the Wild zone before potting a rebound to spoil a terrific effort by backup Alex Stalock in what he hoped would be his first victory since Jan. 15.
The change at the top left, Zucker had to jump back off the ice pic.twitter.com/gafVkVPKcE
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) March 4, 2019
“I thought our effort was great,” defenseman Ryan Suter said. “With kind of the adversity we faced the last day here, I thought our effort was great and I thought Al played solid and it was a good night.”
The night before in Calgary, the Wild played a 9:25 p.m. CT game after Jarome Iginla’s No. 12 ascended to the Saddledome rafters. The Wild would go on to snap the Flames’ seven-game winning streak, then take off for Minnesota a little after 2 a.m. CT. By the time players walked in their front doors, it was after 5 a.m.
But despite the abnormal back-to-back, the Wild brushed off the fatigue and rallied from a 1-0 deficit with goals by Eric Fehr and Jason Zucker less than three minutes apart late in the second period.
👏 @Jason_Zucker16 with the goal! pic.twitter.com/VM1A8gnkn4
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) March 4, 2019
“We all expected to win that game no matter what the travel is, especially if we played our game,” Zucker, who has three goals in the past four games, said. “I thought we played pretty well. We had a slow start. I think we got into it a bit late. But I thought overall it was pretty good.”
The Wild did seem to run out of gas in the third.
They were outshot 14-3, then didn’t register a shot in overtime compared to Nashville’s three.
Advertisement
Ryan Donato and Kevin Fiala couldn’t score to open the shootout. Zach Parise, back in the lineup after missing Saturday’s game, scored his 43rd career shootout goal to extend things. But in the fourth round, Ryan Johansen gave Nashville the victory on a goal Stalock felt should have been overturned. Stalock contended that Johansen pushed his right pad and thus the puck over the goal line.
Johansen's shootout winner, Stalock protested that he pushed the pad & puck in the net pic.twitter.com/9ujmqg527g
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) March 4, 2019
The league quickly reviewed and deemed it a good goal.
The Wild have points now in six straight games but saw their five-game winning streak come to an end heading into Tuesday’s rematch in Nashville to open a three-game road trip. They’re still in the second wild-card spot, tied with Dallas with 71 points. Ninth-place Arizona is two points behind the two teams.
Considering guys like Suter and Jared Spurgeon nearly played a full game’s worth of ice time 21 hours apart, considering the big, hard minutes players like Jonas Brodin logged, head coach Bruce Boudreau said this team showed “it’s got a lot of heart. They want to win. They don’t want to be thought of as the team that didn’t make it. They are giving it everything that they have. We had some guys that played huge minutes last night and tonight. I thought Stalock, who hasn’t played in awhile, came out and played really good tonight.”
Before the game, Boudreau made clear that the Wild plan to ride Devan Dubnyk, who has won five games in a row, down the stretch. He even indicated Dubnyk would play the next four games, including back-to-backs at Tampa Bay and Florida.
But Stalock played one of his best games of the season. He made 41 saves, including several clutch robberies. He arguably made the case to play more, but Boudreau reiterated after the game it will depend on Dubnyk’s week.
Advertisement
He’s on a roll, and if that continues, Boudreau plans to ride his No. 1.
Heading into the game, the chief storyline was Fiala and Mikael Granlund, traded for each other Feb. 25, facing their former teams for the first time.
After the game, the hallway between each team’s respective dressing room was gridlock as old teammates caught up with one another.
Granlund was given a classy video tribute by the Wild during the first intermission, and Wild fans gave him a warm, rousing applause, especially after his 2014 Western Conference quarterfinals overtime goal was shown. During warmups, Wild fans wrapped the Nashville end wearing Granlund jerseys, some holding signs.
Mikael, thank you for everything you did for our organization. pic.twitter.com/uLJC5qTvuT
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) March 4, 2019
Granlund, who just became a father for the first time on his 27th birthday the day after being traded, was clearly touched as he waved to the crowd.
“It was awesome to see the way the fans reacted to that,” Granlund, a 2010 first-round pick, said. “It felt good, it was a good feeling.”
Fiala, who has been held without a point in his first three games with his new club, had four shots on goal and nine attempted. He created three or four Grade A’s for himself, but he couldn’t finish.
That is his M.O. Some have dubbed it the Fiala “hat trick” because he’ll generate so many great chances off great moves without scoring.
He’s a shot and scoring-chance generator though, and the Wild hope he can become a true scorer.
“I was close there a couple times, but the goalie, he’s a good goalie,” Fiala said of his old teammate, Juuse Saros. “I know that. Today, he got lucky, and next game, let’s see.”
Wild general manager Paul Fenton believes Fiala, 22, will develop into a game-breaker. If he can convert on some of these exceptional chances he creates, he certainly has the ability.
Advertisement
In the second period, he was denied on one high-speed 2-on-1, then later blew by Granlund for a breakaway before missing the net. Had he scored there, Fenton probably would have been doing the moonwalk inside the hotel bar at the current GM’s meetings in Boca Raton, Fla.
“I thought he had a couple great chances,” Boudreau said. “Hopefully at some point he’s going to put those in. He put some great moves on out there.”
Fiala did commit a couple goofy turnovers, as did his former Predators, now Wild teammate, Anthony Bitetto. Like Fiala, the popular Bitetto commiserated with his Nashville pals before and after the game. One player who continues to alarm is Pontus Aberg, who was acquired last month from Anaheim. He, too, had another very tough game.
Granlund had a quiet game, although he just missed on a couple chances in the third period one day after oddly practicing in a visitors’ uniform at the Wild’s practice rink.
“To be honest it’s a little weird feeling to come to the other locker room and everything,” Granlund said. “I’ve been here so long. But it got better when the game went on. I feel it’s just nice, I got this over with this quickly and now I don’t need to worry about this first game here anymore and kind of move on.”
Fiala echoed that sentiment, and like Granlund, said Tuesday’s game in his old barn in Nashville will be more emotional than his home debut in a Wild sweater coincidentally against his old team.
“It was actually fun. It was fun to play against them instead of waiting ‘til next season,” Fiala said. “In that building, I’ve been there three, four years, it’s going to be a little more emotion. But I’ve got to stay focused on the game.”
Etc.
With Parise back, Matt Read had to be reassigned to AHL Iowa. …
Donato’s five-game point streak since arriving in Minnesota came to an end. …
Boudreau, before the game, on Granlund: “He’s a great hockey player. He was a catalyst for us. He competes. People just look at the offensive numbers. He was in every defensive situation we had. Granny, wherever he plays, is going to be a top player on that team.” …
Defenseman Greg Pateryn was a healthy scratch for the first time with the Wild so Bitetto could get back into the lineup against his old team.
(Photo of Ryan Johansen scoring the shootout winner for Nashville: David Berding / USA Today)