Wild rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt had seen plenty of the Edmonton Oilers on TV in the past few years, and admitted that they looked impressive. But prior to Tuesday, Wallstedt had never seen them in person.
Likewise, the highly-regarded Oilers had never seen the NHL’s hottest young goalie in person. But after 60 minutes of hockey in big-city Alberta, they know Wallstedt much better.
Just hours after being named the NHL’s top rookie for November, Wallstedt began December in the same manner he went about his business last month, stopping all 33 Edmonton shots as the Wild won 1-0 to open a four-game road trip.
It was Wallstedt’s league-leading fourth shutout, as he improved to 8-0-2 as a starter. Jonas Brodin’s first period goal proved to be the eventual game-winner.
It was Wallstedt’s fourth shutout in his past six games.
The visitors took some time to find their legs, offensively, and were being out-shot 5-1 midway through the first. Then the Wild got the game’s first power play, and while they did not score on the man advantage, it seemed to light a fire under the puck-movers. They headed down the tunnel after 20 minutes with a lead – on Brodin’s blast from the blue line after Nico Sturm won an offensive zone faceoff – and a 9-7 advantage in shots.
It marked the 17th time in 27 games this season that the Wild have scored first.
Edmonton grabbed the momentum in the middle frame, helped in part by a pair of Ryan Hartman trips to the penalty box. The Oilers held a decided 15-6 shots lead in the second, but Minnesota’s penalty killers, and Wallstedt, met the challenge and Minnesota took its one-goal lead into the second intermission.
Minnesota got a third period power play and pressured the Edmonton net, but ended up 0-for-2 on the night with an Oiler in the penalty box.
The night’s best drama came in the final 41 seconds, when Matt Boldy went to the penalty box with Edmonton’s net empty, giving the Oilers a 6-on-4 advantage to end the game. But Joel Eriksson Ek got the puck out of the defensive zone twice, and the Wild held on.
Stuart Skinner, much-maligned as a scapegoat for the Oilers’ below-expectations start to the season, had 23 saves for Edmonton, which will face the Wild again in a few weeks, visiting Grand Casino Arena on Dec. 20
The Wild are one-fourth of the way through their current eight-day western road trip, and will face the Flames in Calgary on Thursday evening. It’s another 8 p.m. CT start. Minnesota blanked Calgary 2-0 last month in St. Paul, in their first meeting of the season.
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