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 4-1 win over the Kraken on Monday.
Johansson had a picture-perfect redirection of a Joel Eriksson Ek shot to break a 1-1 tie, and Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson had 23 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 game.
“Obviously it was a physical, highly-contested game, by both teams,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “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 few guys short. We dug in there and I think we showed a lot of character and grit today,” said Johansson who was red hot in November, then snapped a five-game drought without a point by scoring on Monday. “It was a fun game and a big two points for us.”
Facing the NHL’s worst penalty killers, statistically, the Wild had early opportunities, first when Boldy was tripped barely a minute into the game, 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, quickly, 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 team’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 game – rookie Danila Yurov centering Kaprizov and Tarasenko.
“He’s doing OK,” Hynes said when asked for an update on Zuccarello after the game. “I saw him back there now, but I don’t know what the timeline would be.”
The coach said there would be updates on Zuccarello, Boldy, Middleton and Sturm — who returned and played the game’s final two minutes — once the team is back in Minnesota and the players can be more fully evaluated.
Minnesota finally 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 quickly. Seattle scored on a power play before the game’s midway point, and Grubauer was again on his game, 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 game, when Tye Kartye swatted a puck out of the air, off Gustavsson’s back and into the net. Officials almost immediately ruled no goal, and replays confirmed 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 game on Monday, recording a season-high nine hits in the win.
Grubauer finished with 25 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. 8 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 11 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 18 games for Minnesota this season, and is still looking for his first point with his home state NHL team. The alignment made things tougher when Zuccarello left the game, leaving Minnesota with just 10 forwards for the final two periods.
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