The most obvious benefit of having solid goaltending is it relieves your team’s goal-scorers from having to carry too much weight.
Simple math tells you that when you give up three goals, you need to score four to win. And for a Minnesota Wild team for whom the offense has not been clicking – even when starting November on a 5-1-1 streak – that’s likely too much weight to expect them to carry.
So with Jesper Wallstedt breaking out of his backup role and allowing no goals – not one – in his previous two starts, the trickle-down effect it has on the entire team’s confidence can be seen on the faces inside the winning locker room.
“It feels good when you have him playing this well. It makes the group a lot [more] confident. I mean, he’s incredible right now,” Wild rookie defenseman Zeev Buium said following Wallstedt’s 28-save shutout of the Anaheim Ducks on Saturday. “I don’t know how many goals we’ve let up in the last couple games, but it’s a few. It almost feels like we’re gonna shut out every team when we play them. That’s a good thing to have.”
For the record, entering Sunday night’s game with the Vegas Golden Knights, the Wild had surrendered a NHL-best four goals in their previous four contests, split between Wallstedt and Filip Gustavsson.
Wild coach John Hynes joked following the Anaheim game that a goalie controversy caused by two men both playing well is the best problem a coach can have.
“You need strong goaltending to win, and we obviously have a good tandem,” Hynes said. “I think both guys are competing, and that’s what you want when you have two guys that can play and they compete for the net. That’s usually what drives a lot of things, is if you have competition.”
Strong goaltending also allows some teams to play a more free game, willing to take risks and make plays, secure in the knowledge that mistakes won’t automatically end up in their own net. The Wild took a pair of penalties late in a one-goal game versus Anaheim, then watched their penalty-killers – Wallstedt chief among them – negate the Ducks’ man-advantage and close out a win that was much-needed for team confidence.
The high-risk, high-reward play prompted one Wild player to express some mild concern, while praising Wallstedt.
“I think sometimes too much (confidence),” Minnesota penalty-killer Yakov Trenin said. “Giving up a lot of 2-on-1s, we need to settle down the confidence a little bit on that. A little too confident.”
In blanking the Flames and Ducks in his past two starts, Wallstedt became the first rookie goalie in Wild history with back-to-back shutouts.
Briefly
Wild veteran forward Vladimir Tarasenko missed a second consecutive game due to a lower body injury on Sunday.
“I would classify it as day to day right now with the information I have at this point,” Hynes said following the Anaheim game.
Tarasenko, acquired from Detroit over the summer, has two goals and eight assists in his first 18 games with the Wild.
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