The Minnesota Wild’s home opener on Saturday night turned into a clean 4-1 win over the Boston Bruins, and the story of the game was all over special teams and the team’s top end talent.
Boston struck first, scoring just under two minutes into the game, but Minnesota answered in the second period and never looked back. The Wild tied it at 1-1, then grabbed their first lead later in the period before stretching it to 3-1 in the third. Kirill Kaprizov finished it off with an empty-net goal in the final minutes to seal the two-goal win.
That result came on the heels of Minnesota’s 3-1 road win over the Nashville Predators on Thursday, Oct. 1, and the lineup remained unchanged from opening night. Filip Gustavsson was still out while recovering from surgery, and Brock Faber remained unavailable after fracturing his skull in the final preseason game. Jesper Wallstedt got the start in goal against Boston.
Special teams gave the Wild a huge lift. Their power play looked sharp again, with back-to-back goals on the man advantage helping turn the game in their favor. It wasn’t just the top group that stood out, either - the second unit kept the puck moving and didn’t let the possession bog down.
“Yeah, want more outta the 5-on-3, but I think had some decent looks there on Boldy’s one-timer. I don’t know where that puck went, but obviously want to capitalize on those, but sometimes it’s hard early in the year, and you’re not really in that flow state or whatnot, but we’ll get there,” said Quinn Hughes to the media during his postgame when asked about the power play.
Hughes was right in the middle of everything. He was on the ice for the Wild’s first power-play goal, then scored the second to put Minnesota ahead for good.
His goal was a point shot that climbed into the upper corner, and later he set up Jared Spurgeon’s goal that made it 3-1 early in the third. After the game, Hughes talked about the work that goes into finding comfort in tight spaces.
“Yeah, I mean, I work on it, obviously, but also like study the game and like what I need to do or what I don’t need to do. Obviously game reps and getting confident throughout the years but, yeah,” said Hughes to the media later in his postgame interview when asked about how he’s comfortable in the small areas.
Kaprizov also delivered the kind of night Minnesota needed from one of its stars. He opened the scoring for the Wild with a power-play goal and later added the empty-netter. He spent much of the night building chemistry with newcomer Maxim Shabanov, who has filled the spot Mats Zuccarello left behind for now.
“Sometimes, he just asking me ‘who go, who go?’ ‘Who I take,’ and I say, you take Nick, I take Marcus.
He’s 71, I’m 17. Just funny, today actually he asked me three times on the bench, second period for one shift.
Yeah, I yell at him a little bit,” Kaprizov said to the media in his postgame, laughing, when asked if Shabanov still asks him questions.
The other major bright spot was the penalty kill. After last season’s finish, that area was a clear point of emphasis, and the early returns have been encouraging. Minnesota handled Boston’s chances well, and it has done so without Faber, one of its best penalty killers.
Jesper Wallstedt said the group’s approach has made the difference.
“Well, I feel like we just have a good pressure constantly on them. I feel like we force their mistakes, or we force them to make … plays to hopefully spots where we kind of know where they’re going so we can pressure on that. I feel like we’re more predictable to each other and guys kind of just read off of each other and feel off of each other what we’re supposed to do and it’s been working well thus far,” said Jesper Wallstedt to the media in his postgame when asked about the penalty kill.
The Wild now have a few days before their next trip. They head east on Tuesday, Oct. 6, to open a three-game road swing against the Buffalo Sabres.
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