Any team in sports has got to be pleased with a five game winning streak, right ? Tonight’s NHL contest between the Minnesota WILD and the Toronto Maple Leafs provides a head on challenge for 2 red hot teams in the “State of Hockey”.
The WILD has a similar past to the Leafs with multiple first round playoff exits and a pretty mediocre record since their debut back in 2000. They are another one of those teams that Ontarians don’t know much about. For instance, how many knew that Mikko Koivu, their long time captain, has not only retired but is due to become the first member in franchise history to his jersey (#9) retired ?
After another first round exit last May, General Manager Bill Guerrin decided to part ways with two of their franchise stalwarts, namely Ryan Suter and Zach Parise. That made cap space available to re-sign 24 year old Russian star Kirill Kaprizov. The former KHL sniper has 25 points in 22 games thus far and resides in the Top 10 of the scoring list.
Not surprisingly, Minnesota started their top line with Hartman centering Matt Zuccarello and Kaprizov. They have scored a majority of the WILD goals to date and they set a good pace. The Leafs were without the services of top 6 winger Mitch Marner, so Wayne Simmonds gladly stepped up. Ondrej Kase was back in the fold after what was a poorly kept secret, “upper (head) body” injury.
A pretty good back and forth ensued with shots/chances pretty much even. Coach Keefe tried a Matthews/Tavares/Nylander combo on 2 or 3 occasions to no avail. Alex Kerfoot dropped down with the Czech brothers on those few shifts and didn’t look out of place.
It wasn’t until a rather robust late period shift before things really started ECO Centre rocking. Simmonds, doing his job, defended a solid hit against Matthews and when it all settled down, he and Mark Foligno had a spirited dance.
Jordan Greenway pumped in a Matt Dumba rebound to set the score at 1-0 with just 23.7 seconds left.
The second period started off like a penalty fest ! This wasn’t exactly playing into the home team as they currently stood at 27th in PP with a rather pathetic 13.5 % rate. This proved rather true when the first Minny PP recorded only a solid body check on Engvall. But wait, a second PP opportunity allowed Zuccarello to make it 2 zip and the Wild seemed to be on their way. This was verified on Foligno’s goal at 11:53. A 9-2 hit advantage by the home squad helped accentuate the advantage.
Keefe went to plan ‘B’ moving Spezza up in to the Marner hole. Jason thanked his coaches’ faith by finalizing a fluke goal to break the goose egg. Not to be outdone, Spezza popped in a PP goal to make it interesting and as the piez de resistance, he set up a beauty for Mathews to tie it up before the buzzer.
With the Leafs outshooting the WILD by 20-7 in their comeback second period, they came out firing on all cylinders to start the third. That momentum came to a screaming halt when Minny got a favorable penalty call at 4:46 and then again shortly thereafter to give the home side a 1:48 – 2 man advantage. Nada. Back and forth these clubs went – eventually ending it @ 3-3 in regulation.
What a great overtime from both clubs – chance for chance, save for save. Inevitably, the Leafs were drawn in to their first shootout of the year. Kirill Kaprizov won it. Final 4-3 WILD.
HOPPER NOTES:
Didn’t hang around, but I sure hope Jason Spezza was one of the stars…guys I wish I had on my team: Matt Dumba…Matt Reilly, in on all 3 goals – he’s coming on…I’m sure ShannyDubas would like to have a couple of 6’6” 230 pounders in their line-up…gotta love the way Coach Keefe has taught his forwards to “mix and match” no matter what the circumstance…cap issues aside, when Ilya Mikelov is ready to go again, who goes first Engvall or Ritchie ?
Discuss – Cheers !