Rookies can add great things to their teams come playoff time. And there are moments where you’re reminded they are rookies.

That was the case for defenseman Zeev Buium on Saturday, after he again showed flashes of the offensive brilliance that made him one of college hockey’s top players as a sophomore at Denver, and took a costly penalty that changed the direction of the game.

With Buium in the penalty box for four minutes, the Golden Knights tied the game, and Buium didn’t see the ice in overtime of the Wild’s loss in Game 4. But after the game, his coach wasn’t making a scapegoat out of the rookie, or anyone.

“I think just more of the situation of some of the guys that we were going with. I think that was the decision we made going through,” John Hynes said about Buium’s limited ice time, although he did play following the penalty. “He was fine after, like we put him right back out, when he got out of the penalty (box). I just thought when we get into overtime, we were going with the guys we went with.”

Wild captain Jared Spurgeon, who has played defense at this level for more than a decade, said that the penalty — which came when Buium inadvertently caught Vegas captain Mark Stone near his eye with a high stick — was unfortunate, but nothing more.

“Unlucky. He didn’t mean to do it,” Spurgeon said. “Nothing you can do. Nothing really to say other than support him.”

In all, Buium logged 13:33 in the game, and was a plus-2. Matt Boldy set a team record for time on the ice by a forward with 33:08, while defenseman Brock Faber played exactly one second less, at 33:07.

Assist from the seventh player

There is a running joke in hockey that attackers on a power play would never know when to release the puck, save for the crowd yelling “shooooooot” whenever there’s an opportunity to test the goalie.

But when the Wild got a vital man-advantage goal late in the second period of Game 3, the audience may have actually been helpful. Knowing that there were less than 10 seconds remaining in the period, Ryan Hartman could hear the crowd yelling for a shot as the puck was coming his way. So, he took a quick glance at the scoreboard just before the pass reached him and saw roughly four seconds with which to work.

Knowing there was no time for a fancy play, Hartman threw the puck toward the goalmouth where it glanced off Kirill Kaprizov’s chest and over the goal line for a 4-1 lead.

“They get it,” Wild coach John Hynes joked afterward. “The seventh man gets the assist on that one.”

Political appeal at the rink

In addition to the highlights, crowd enticements and advertisements shown on the Xcel Energy Center scoreboard between periods, on Saturday there was a QR code posted with an appeal for Minnesotans to contact their legislators and urge their support of public dollars to upgrade the 25-year-old arena.

Wild owner Craig Leipold and St. Paul mayor Melvin Carter testified before the Minnesota Senate and House earlier in the spring, detailing a request for nearly $400 million in state dollars for updates and upgrades not only to the hockey arena but to the adjacent Roy Wilkins Auditorium and RiverCentre convention facility.

A scan of the QR code took visitors to a website where they could sign up for updates on the renovation efforts, noting that the arena complex generates $383 million in local spending and draws 2 million visitors to St. Paul each year.

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There was a clear headliner of the undrafted free agents that signed with the Vikings.

Gophers quarterback Max Brosmer.

After not hearing his name called in the 2025 NFL draft, Brosmer signed with the Vikings in the immediate aftermath. He will reportedly get a deal with $250,000 guaranteed. The addition of Brosmer rounds out a talented quarterback room that also includes presumed starting quarterback J.J. McCarthy, presumed backup quarterback Sam Howell, and reserve Brett Rypien.

It’s a great situation for Brosmer to walk into as he’ll get to work directly with head coach Kevin O’Connell as he learns the ropes of the position at the next level.

The other 18 undrafted free agents the Vikings signed (in alphabetical included BYU edge rusher Tyler Batty, Texas receiver Silas Bolden, Kansas offensive lineman Logan Brown, Georgia edge rusher Chaz Chambliss, Auburn punter Oscar Chapman, North Carolina State offensive lineman Zeke Correll, Tulane receiver Dontae Fleming, Kansas State cornerback Keenan Garber, Wisconsin offensive lineman Joe Huber, Auburn linebacker Austin Keys, Auburn receiver Robert Lewis, Auburn linebacker Dorian Mausi, North Carolina tight end Bryson Nesbit, Miami safety Mishael Powell, Jacksonville State running back Tre Stewart, Utah cornerback Zemaiah Vaughn, Middle Tennessee State defensive lineman Alex Williams, and Georgia tight end Ben Yurosek.

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What a shame.

The Wild did almost everything right in Game 4 of their first-round playoff series against Las Vegas on Saturday. Almost. That’s good enough for some NHL teams; it isn’t for this Wild team, for which the other shoe always seems close to dropping — and often does.

That other shoe is special teams, which have haunted Minnesota for two full seasons now — and longer when one assesses their previous two postseason appearances. It was inevitable they would bite the Wild at some point during this year’s postseason, and it came Saturday when Vegas scored a pair of power-play goals to beat the Wild in overtime, 4-3, at Xcel Energy Center.

After two strong wins in Vegas and St. Paul, the Wild not only had a chance to take a 3-1 series back to Las Vegas, but looked as if they would. Despite falling behind on Shea Theodore’s power play goal in the first 7 minutes, the Wild kept grinding and took a 2-1 lead into the third period on greasy goals by Marco Rossi and Marcus Foligno.

The Wild were playing a tight, responsible game and goaltender Filip Gustavsson was in control (he finished with 42 saves). They even killed two off other man advantages. Then less than 2 minutes into the third period, Zeev Buium, a rookie playing his fourth NHL game, got his stick under the helmet of Matt Stone and cut the top-liner’s right eye.

Buium was sent to the box for 4 minutes on a double minor. Uh oh.

It’s one thing to ask this team to kill 2 minutes when a man down; it’s another entirely to ask them to do it for 4 minutes. They came close, but with 8 seconds left, fourth-line center Nicolas Roy pounced on a rebound in the slot and fired it back into the net to make it 2-2.

That changed just about everything.

Knights skaters hadn’t really been in sync to that point, just missing on a lot of passes and pucks, perhaps because, you know, a 3-1 series deficit is hard to come back from. But after tying in, Vegas looked refreshed and took a 3-2 lead when a shot from Stone caromed off teammate Tomas Hertl, who was in a heap with Ryan Hartman at the crease.

Jared Spurgeon tied it again, 3-3, with a wraparound goal with 9:03 left in regulation, but the Wild were gassed. They came out firing in overtime but couldn’t solve Adin Hill and finally ran out of steam. It didn’t help that coach John Hynes was essentially playing five defenseman for most of the third period and overtime.

After last season, Hynes fired former assistant Bob Woods and brought in former Islanders head coach Jack Capuano, and promoted Pat Dwyer from Iowa, to look under the hood. The nuts and bolts might have changed, but the results haven’t. The Wild had the NHL’s third-worst penalty kill in 2023-24 and finished the regular season this year in the exact same spot after allowing 56 power-play goals.

Their two postseason trips prior to this one were undone by special teams, and now — four power-play goals against later — this one is tilting the same way.

Back in 2023, the Wils were up on Dallas in a first-round series, 2-1, before the Stars went 2 for 3 with a man advantage and beat Minnesota 3-2 in Game 4. At that point, the Stars were 6 for 16 with a man advantage, and Dallas scored two more on the way to a 4-2 series victory.

In 2022, the Wild were up on St. Louis, 2-1, before losing in six. They allowed six power-play goals in that one. At some point, this becomes unacceptable. Staying out of the box isn’t a viable penalty kill plan.

Afterward, Hynes said he was happy with the kill, saying it’s “in a really good spot.”

“We got good saves, we had good attention to detail, we killed well,” he said. “You come into a game like this, you look at the way we played, tonight you could arguably say there were a couple bounces that didn’t go our way.”

“Here we are,” he added. “Love it.”

It’s true, this series isn’t over, now a best-of-three starting Tuesday in Vegas. But it feels as if that other shoe will be there, too, waiting to drop.

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Ivan Barbashev scored late in the first overtime as the Vegas Golden Knights rallied for a 4-3 win to forge a 2-all tie in their best-of-seven series with the Minnesota Wild on Saturday afternoon.

Taking advantage of two misplays by the Wild defense near their net, Barbashev shoveled in a loose puck. The Knights trailed by a goal in the final period, but scored three of the game’s final four goals to recapture home-ice advantage as the series heads back to Nevada.

The loss negated a 43-save effort by Minnesota goalie Filip Gustavsson, as the Wild got goals from Marco Rossi, Marcus Foligno and Jared Spurgeon but fell just short of a 3-1 series lead for the first time in franchise history.

Adin Hill had 29 saves for the Knights, who had lost the previous two games after a win in the series opener.

Minnesota had killed a quartet of penalties in the Game 3 win, but Vegas got an early man advantage on Saturday and struck first when defenseman Shea Theodore sent a long-range shot through a mess of bodies in front of Gustavsson. It was some much-needed good news for Theodore, who had struggled defensively in the first three games of the series.

The Wild pulled even when Rossi got his second goal of the series in a notably similar fashion as his first of the series — getting a pass from behind the net and popping in a quick shot from the top of the crease. The Knights had a notable advantage in shots in the opening period but not a lead on the scoreboard.

Foligno’s third goal of the series, early in the middle frame, gave the Wild the lead when he popped in the rebound after Hill stopped a Ryan Hartman shot from the hashmarks. With the assist, Hartman became the second player in Wild franchise history to record a helper in each of the first four games of a playoff series.

Leading 2-1 early in the third, Wild rookie defenseman Zeev Buium took his first NHL penalty, and it was a big one. His high stick to the face of Vegas top-liner Mark Stone drew blood, and a double minor.

The Wild managed to kill all but eight seconds of the 4-minute penalty, but Nicolas Roy tied the game after Gustavsson made a pair of saves, but the Wild could not clear the loose puck. The goal came a few minutes after Roy had delivered a punch to the face of Wild defenseman Jake Middleton, with no penalty called, which did not sit well with the home crowd in Minnesota.

The boos got even louder when Vegas took the lead near the midway point of the third on a fluky deflection when Stone banked a puck off Tomas Hertl in front of the net. But the Wild answered less than a minute later on Spurgeon’s wraparound, with Kaprizov causing trouble at the net front. Yakov Trenin had a breakaway for Minnesota on the next shift, but Hill denied the backhander that was aiming for the goalie’s five-hole.

Minnesota had a power play in overtime after Joel Eriksson Ek drove hard to the crease and was flattened by Roy, who was called for holding on the play. The Wild tested Hill on the man advantage but could not break through.

Wild winger Marcus Johansson, who suffered a lower-body injury in Game 3, was scratched from the Game 4 lineup. Vinnie Hinostroza took Johansson’s place, playing wing on the third line. It was the ninth career playoff game for Hinostroza, who was claimed off waivers by the Wild in early February. He previously played in the postseason for Chicago and Arizona.

Game 5 will be played on Tuesday evening at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The start time is expected to be announced by the NHL on Sunday.

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