20 January 2024
The Wild aren’t dead yet.
The day after a 7-3 setback in Tampa Bay, the Wild scored five power play goals, and withstood three injuries to another group of key contributors, to beat the Florida Panthers, 6-4, Friday at Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise, Fla.
Minnesota entered the game nine points from the last playoff spot in the Western Conference, with five teams ahead of them, but after beating the Panthers, they’re 4-0 against the top two teams in the East, sweeping both Boston and Florida this season.
Kirill Kaprizov scored two power play goals, and Ryan Hartman, Brock Faber and Mats Zuccarello each added one for the Wild, tying a team record last achieved in a 6-2 at Nashville on Nov. 29, 2008.
Hartman’s empty-net goal with 11.8 seconds left sealed the victory for Minnesota, which finishes this three-game road trip with an afternoon puck drop Sunday at Carolina.
The Wild started the game without forward Freddy Gaudreau, who suffered an upper body injury in Tampa on Thursday, then lost goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury to an upper body injury and center Connor Dewar to a lower body injury in the second period Friday.
Fleury left the game at the same time as Florida’s Sergei Bobrovsky, who was pulled for Anthony Stolarz with 9:30 left in the second period after giving up Zuccarello’s goal from the high slot. In the first period, Fleury was knocked down by William Lockwood while trying to corral a puck behind his net.
Filip Gustavsson came in and stopped 24 of 27 shots.
Kaprizov opened the scoring when he deflected a pass from Matt Boldy at 2:49 of the first period, then put the Wild up 5-2 with seven seconds left in a power play early in the third period.
But the Panthers, the East’s Stanley Cup entrant last season, didn’t go away quietly. Anton Lundell pulled Florida within two goals when he backhanded a rebound past Gustavsson at 8:05, and Gustav Forsling made it 5-4 just 17 seconds later.
Florida came at Minnesota in waves for the final 7 minutes of the game but Gustavsson made a series of tough saves. Panthers coach Paul Maurice pulled Stolarz with just more than 2 minutes to play. Gustavsson made a sliding glove save to save Minnesota’s lead with 48.2 seconds remaining, and Hartman added an empty netter with 11.8 to seal it.
Before Friday night’s game, Wild coach John Hynes told reporters that Gaudreau’s status had yet to be determined.
“He’s still getting evaluated,” Hynes said. “I think tomorrow, well, he’ll be at the doctor’s again, and then we’ll have maybe a better assessment of when he’ll be back.”
Related Articles
Wild lose Jared Spurgeon to season-ending surgeries
Wild facing possibility Jared Spurgeon won’t return this season
Amazon will invest in Diamond Sports as part of bankruptcy restructuring agreement
A thin blue line: Wild have struggled without defensive leaders
Wild goalie Marc-Andre Fleury moves into second place on NHL career wins list