It’s only the midway point of January, and the Minnesota Wild’s regular season finale is still three full months away. But with some numbers-crunching websites showing that the local hockey club has a 97% chance of making the playoffs, it’s certainly not too early for a game that had a definite high-intensity postseason feel.
That was the case on Wednesday, as the Wild and Edmonton Oilers waged a back-and-forth battle featuring the pretty, the gritty and the downright nasty.
Oilers star Connor McDavid had a pair of goals as Edmonton overcame first- and second-period deficits to win 5-3, taking the season series by beating Minnesota for the second time in three tries this season.
And in a tale all too familiar for the Wild this season, they may be down another forward as they head out on the road for their next two games. Already beset with more than their share of injuries, several Wild players had words with the officials at the end of the second period, after McDavid clipped Wild forward Marcus Johansson in the face with an elbow late in the period. Johansson crumpled to the ice immediately and was helped off the rink by the team’s trainers.
There was no penalty called on the play. Middleton did not return for the third period and coach John Hynes said he will be out with an upper body injury and again was unsatisfied from the explanation he got from officials for a no-call, as well as in the end result.
“I thought that we deserved better tonight. I think when you look at a lot of the analytical things and even the game, sometimes when you’re on the bench, you feel like that,” Hynes said. “Sometimes after losses, you’re not sure. But I feel disappointed for our team tonight because I thought that we had a real strong effort. I thought we played well enough to win the game. I think we had some real good chances…You can play well sometimes and not win.”
The Wild got early goals from Matt Boldy and Marco Rossi, and a second period goal from Ryan Hartman, but could not hold their leads, despite testing Oilers goalie Calvin Pickard repeatedly. Minnesota goalie Filip Gustavsson had 31 saves, as the Wild have now lost three of their last four.
“It was two top teams in the West just trying to to out-battle each other and out-muscle each other, and unfortunately they came out on top in the season series,” Wild defenseman Jake Middleton said.
Edmonton, which had won six of its previous seven games before arriving in Minnesota, burst from the gate, controlling the play and testing Gustavsson with a pair of shots in the opening two minutes. But an early penalty on Oilers defenseman Darnell Nurse gave the Wild a chance to turn the tables and they did, with Boldy circling in front of the Edmonton net and beating their goalie with a high shot.
With his 17th goal of the season, Boldy moved to second on the team behind Kirill Kaprizov’s 23. But he got company on the stat sheet soon after, as Boldy’s cross-ice pass on the Wild’s third power play of the period set up Rossi’s back door goal, which was the diminutive Austrian’s 17th of the season, and gave Minnesota a two-goal lead.
“Yeah, I thought we played good. Some nights it doesn’t go your way,” Boldy said. “It wasn’t for a lack of effort, I thought we played good and had our chances. He made some saves and some key time. So it is what it is.”
The lead didn’t last long, as Edmonton got on the board just 21 seconds later, and forged a tie before the period ended, with McDavid scoring on the Oilers’ first power play of the game.
The teams traded second period goals, with Hartman recording his seventh point of the past eight games when he scored off a faceoff early in the frame. Edmonton answered when Ryan Nugent-Hopkins deflected a shot by former Wisconsin Badgers standout Ty Emberson past Gustavsson for a 3-3 tie.
Adding insult to the Johansson injury, the Oilers took their first lead just 82 seconds into the third. A wide-angle pass from the far boards deflected off the skate of Wild defenseman Declan Chisholm and slipped over the goal line just as Nurse barreled into the Wild goalie, touching off a brief scrap in the crease. When all the dust cleared, Edmonton had a lead it would not relinquish. McDavid finished a late 2-on-1 rush to give the visitors a two-goal lead, as Minnesota fell to 11-10-1 at home this season.
With 1,044 career points now, McDavid has moved into second place on the Oilers’ all-time scoring list, ahead of Jari Kurri and trailing only Wayne Gretzky.
“It was a good game. They played well. They had some good looks, as did we. It was a pretty wild game,” said Pickard, who finished with 31 saves for Edmonton. “Obviously, it was 3-3 there in the second period, and I just wanted to hold them there. I knew we were going to score one or two more. I just wanted to keep it at three.”
The Wild, who have amassed a NHL-best 35 points away from home, head out on the road for their next two, visiting Nashville on Saturday and facing the Avalanche in Colorado on Monday afternoon.
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