Wild survive slugfest in Seattle
On a night that might ultimately prove costly the Minnesota Wild got a third period goal from Marcus Johansson and survived a slugfest in Seattle fighting through injuries and inconsistency for a hard-fought - win over the Kraken on Monday Johansson had a picture-perfect redirection of a Joel Eriksson Ek shot to break a - tie and Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson had saves as Minnesota snapped a two-game losing streak and ended its lengthy western road trip on an optimistic note But the two points came at a price for the Wild who lost forward Mats Zuccarello defenseman Jake Middleton forward Matt Boldy and forward Nico Sturm at various times throughout the championship Obviously it was a physical highly-contested championship by both teams Wild coach John Hynes noted I liked liked our response I thought we played hard and we played smart and I think that s what you want to do in those situations Eriksson Ek had a second period goal for the Wild who likely employed plenty of ice packs on their late-night charter back to the Twin Cities Kirill Kaprizov and Vladimir Tarasenko added late empty net goals It wasn t easy tonight a scant guys short We dug in there and I think we proved a lot of character and grit in the current era revealed Johansson who was red hot in November then snapped a five-game drought without a point by scoring on Facing the NHL s worst penalty killers statistically the Wild had early opportunities first when Boldy was tripped barely a minute into the event and again when Kaprizov took an inadvertent high stick to the cheek They gave Seattle goalie Philipp Grubauer plenty of first period work including a Ryan Hartman breakaway but he was up to the puck-stopping task Then things went downhill briskly for the Wild with five minutes left in the first Zuccarello skating through the neutral zone with the puck was taken out by a high hard check from Seattle defenseman Vince Dunn Initially called a major penalty on Dunn referees looked at the video and downgraded it to a clean hit and Seattle ended up with a power play The bigger loss was Zuccarello the organization s top-line wing who headed down the tunnel to the locker room and did not return With Zuccarello unavailable the Wild went with an all-Russian top line much of the rest of the challenge rookie Danila Yurov centering Kaprizov and Tarasenko He s doing OK Hynes declared when petitioned for an update on Zuccarello after the battle I saw him back there now but I don t know what the timeline would be The coach declared there would be updates on Zuccarello Boldy Middleton and Sturm who returned and played the championship s final two minutes once the band is back in Minnesota and the players can be more fully evaluated Minnesota absolutely broke the scoreless deadlock early in the middle frame when Eriksson Ek slipped a low shot between Grubauer s knees after a pass from Boldy who was behind the net But the lead and the momentum went away relatively hurriedly Seattle scored on a power play before the championship s midway point and Grubauer was again on his match stopping a Yakov Trenin shorthanded breakaway later in the second Just nine seconds after Johansson s go-ahead goal Seattle briefly thought it had re-tied the event when Tye Kartye swatted a puck out of the air off Gustavsson s back and into the net Officers almost promptly ruled no goal and replays approved that Kartye had played the puck with a high stick Trenin who has led the NHL in hits for much of the season continued his high-contact championship on Monday recording a season-high nine hits in the win Grubauer finished with saves for Seattle which has now lost five in a row The Kraken host Minnesota again in a month with the Wild closing out a seven-game road trek on Jan in Seattle The Wild will play their next four at home starting Thursday when the Dallas Stars make their first visit of the season to Grand Casino Arena Briefly The Wild went with forwards and seven defensemen on Monday scratching fourth-line forward Tyler Pitlick and adding reserve defenseman Daemon Hunt to the lineup Hunt had been a healthy scratch for the previous eight games Pitlick has played in games for Minnesota this season and is still looking for his first point with his home state NHL unit The alignment made things tougher when Zuccarello left the championship leaving Minnesota with just forwards for the final two periods Related Articles Good memories for Freddy Gaudreau as he faces Wild Tom Hicks the Texas businessman who owned Stars Rangers and Liverpool teams dies at Jesper Wallstedt looks human as Wild drop consecutive games for first time since October John Hynes likes Vladimir Tarasenko s challenge wants to see more shots Latest scoring drought has Wild thinking power play
