With Ryan Hartman suspended and Marcus Foligno lost for the season, the Wild were in dire need of some supplemental scoring on Tuesday. The fourth line stepped up.

Matt Boldy got the top line on the board early in the second period, but fourth-line grinders Mason Shaw and Vinni Lettieri scored big goals for the Wild in their 3-2 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center.

Shaw, recalled from the American League on Feb. 16 after recovering from his fourth anterior cruciate ligament tear, opened the scoring with an even-strength goal in the first period, and Lettieri broke a 2-2 tie with 6:56 remaining in regulation.

Lettieri scored his first goal since Dec. 18, and Shaw scored his first goal since March 21, 2023. Eleven days later, he tore up his right knee in a 4-1 loss in Las Vegas.

“I’ve thought about it quite a bit in the last week,” Shaw said. “I mean, for it to be, what 366 (days) today? That one felt good, and I’m in a lot better spirits this time than I was a year ago today. Just really happy. Obviously getting a win makes everything feel better, and something I look back on really proud of what it took to get to this point.”

Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 30 shots, including a short-handed breakaway by Ridley Greig minutes before Lettieri broke the tie, as Minnesota pulled within six points of Los Angeles for the Western Conference’s second wild card spot pending the Kings’ game against Seattle on Wednesday.

“We got the two points,” said defenseman Zack Bogosian, whose cross-ice pass resulted in Shaw’s goal. “Obviously, it wasn’t our prettiest, but you know, this time of year even when you’re getting a win, that’s huge. (We) found a way to win.”

Hartman on Monday received a three-game, unpaid suspension for throwing his stick on the ice after last Saturday’s 2-1 overtime loss to Vegas, and Foligno had season-ending surgery on Tuesday to repair his core muscles. Those are big blows for a team holding onto postseason hopes with what are now eight regular-season games remaining.

But for one night at least, the fourth line — which lost anchors Connor Dewar and Brandon Duhaime at the trade deadline — was the difference offensively.

“That’s how you win games is you gotta have a team that can compete in all areas but obviously tonight the biggest difference was the secondary scoring,” coach John Hynes said.

Shaw helped create the go-ahead goal when he chased down a loose puck in the Ottawa zone and sent it toward the net. The puck hit a Senator’s stick but found its way to the slot, where Lettieri was waiting. He corralled it and scored on a no-look back-hander at 13:04.

Jake Lucchini started the first scoring chance when he won a defensive battle on the wall in the Wild’s end. Shaw recovered the puck and, skating north, passed to Bogosian, who was racing down the right boards. Quickly, the Wild had a 3 on 2 with Lettieri in the center.

With Shaw racing to the corner of the crease, Bogosian sent a pass across the circles that bounced over Lettieri’s stick right to Shaw — who one-timed it past Korpisalo into the far corner for a 1-0 lead at 12:32 of the first period.

“Bogo must have had a little marinara sauce on there,” Lettieri said. “It was great. It was an awesome pass, right on the tape — and Shawsie made no mistake.”

The Wild quickly added to that lead in the second period when Kirill Kaprizov centered a pass into the slot, whence Boldy swept the puck past Korpisalo for a 2-0 lead just 49 seconds into the period.

Boldy scored 49 seconds into the second period for a 2-0 lead, but it seemed to wake up the Senators, who dominated the rest of the period, scoring on power-play goals by Drake Batherson and Jakob Chychrun.

That seemed to get Ottawa’s attention, and the Senators generally outplayed Minnesota for the next 30 minutes, tying the score 2-2 scoring on power-play goals by Drake Batherson and Jakob Chychrun.

But Shaw helped set up the go-ahead goal when he chased down a loose puck to keep alive a rush in the Senators’ zone, getting just enough on it to center it, even after hitting an Ottawa players’ stick.

It found Lettieri between the circles, and the veteran wing sent a blind back-hander underneath Joonas Korpisalo to make it 3-2 at 13:04. Although Shaw got the puck to his linemate, Lettieri was credited with an unassisted goal.

“I knew where I was putting it, but I was very lucky that (the puck) got to me the way it did,” Lettieri said. “I didn’t really have too much time, just tried to beat the goalie quick underneath his blocker.”

The Wild have two more games at home this week, starting Thursday against Colorado, before starting a five-game road trip at Chicago on Sunday.

Related Articles

Wild’s Ryan Hartman on throwing stick on ice: ‘I was over-the-top frustrated’

Wild’s Ryan Hartman suspended three games for throwing stick on ice

Wild’s overtime gambit foiled in 2-1 overtime loss to Vegas

Wild’s John Hynes explains decision to pull goalie in overtime

Wild hoping Marcus Foligno’s season will last a little longer

Houston is Minnesota-like in its defensive approach.

The Rockets have a lot of excellent athletes capable of defending at a high level on the perimeter. And their defensive game plans are meticulous.

Houston coach Ime Udoka is on his players all game, directing traffic on how they should be covering each matchup and where the help should come from.

The Rockets effectively game-planned Anthony Edwards out of the game. The 22-year-old star guard scored just 13 points in the game’s first 47 minutes and didn’t record a made field goal until midway through the third frame.

Given that Minnesota is also sans Karl-Anthony Towns, these are the types of performances that you’d assume would lead to Timberwolves defeats.

But that simply has not been the case of late. Because, given the ball movement Minnesota has displayed and the confidence with which everyone on the floor currently possesses, if you commit too many resources to one player, the others will almost certainly kill you.

Such was the case in Tuesday’s 113-106 victory over the Rockets.

Naz Reid led the charge with 25 points, Mike Conley scored 14 points, Kyle Anderson had 13 points, nine assists and six rebounds, and Jordan McLaughlin knocked down three triples to go with seven assists as Minnesota’s offense kept chugging along. The Wolves shot 53 percent from the field and 43 percent from deep.

Because the brand of basketball Minnesota is playing at the moment — with quick decisions and ample ball movement — is impossible to game-plan out.

So long as Edwards requires any extra attention from the opponent, someone else will be granted an advantage. And, at the moment, everyone on the floor is ready and able to capitalize on as much. And the end result is brilliant basketball.

“To me, that’s the idea of the game of basketball at the offensive end. Share it, move it, find the open guy,” coach Chris Finch said. “Particularly when you’re playing switch-heavy defenses because the No. 1 intent is for them to just bait you into slow iso-basketball and load up in the paint. We didn’t fall for that after the first quarter, I thought we did a good job of playing quicker. But no doubt about it. That’s, to me, is the essence of the game.”

To that end, it’s no surprise that as the ball movement has ramped up, the shooting percentages of many around the team have skyrocketed. McLaughlin — who’s now shooting 51 percent from deep on the season — noted the ways in which Minnesota is generating its shots matters.

“The rhythm of the ball, the flow of it. When you know the ball is going to come swing, swing – it’s a drill we do all the time in practice, drive, pass, pass, and you kind of develop that rhythm, you’re able to step into it,” McLaughlin said. “Where off the dribble, it might come a beat late, it might come off target. So it just comes at you a bit differently.”

The former is proving to be a winning formula.

“Everybody gets a chance to get a shot up and everybody is happy for one another, everybody wants to see the next guy flourish and be great,” Reid said. “So I think everybody has that mindset to where we all just want to see the next guy flourish within a win.”

That brand of basketball allowed Minnesota to keep Houston — one of the NBA’s hottest teams — at arm’s length for most of the night.

Finally, after struggling from deep for 95 percent of the contest, Houston got hot from three late, with Fred VanVleet going nuclear with four late triples after starting the game 0 for 7 beyond the arc.

That allowed Houston to close a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit to just one with 112 seconds to play. But Conley hit a floater to push the lead back to three, and Minnesota’s defense then put on the clamps to create turnovers that led to easy Edwards buckets at the end to close the door.

It’s another impressive win for Minnesota, who continues to win at a high clip and now stands in second place in the Western Conference, just a half game back of Denver. And, given the way they’re playing at the moment, if this current style carries forward, there’s no telling where they may end up.

“When KAT’s in the game that’s just a lot of volume and offense through him, rightfully so,” Anderson said. “Now when he’s not there, it’s opportunities for other guys to step up and guys are playing well.”

Related Articles

Mike Conley snubbed in pursuit of fifth sportsmanship award

Fatigue setting in for Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards after Superman-like stretch

Timberwolves can’t get key shots to fall in loss to Bulls

Rudy Gobert notes improvements in Timberwolves’ organization in recent years

Conley’s Corner: Made in March

In what may well end up being the largest snub of the still young NBA awards season, Timberwolves guard Mike Conley wasn’t named one of six finalists for the NBA sportsmanship award on Tuesday.

That honor recognizes “the player who best represents the ideals of sportsmanship on the court.”

Conley is the reigning champ, and has won the award four times. He has never won it in back to back years, so maybe the 36-year-old point guard not winning it this season shouldn’t be a surprise. But his omission from even the list of finalists was surprising.

The six finalists are Philadelphia’s Tyrese Maxey, Cleveland’s Jarrett Allen, Miami’s Kevin Love, Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Sacramento’s Harrison Barnes and San Antonio’s Tre Jones (the Apple Valley product).

Every division has a finalist, so really Gilgeous-Alexander was chosen over Conley. The Wolves’ guard has never received a technical foul in his NBA career.

“I should win it every year. to be honest,” Conley said with a smile earlier this year when discussing the award. “I don’t think there’s anybody like me that exists out there anymore.”

The pursuit of one for the thumb will have to wait until next season.

Perhaps the sting of that omission was lessened Tuesday when Conley was named one of 12 finalists for the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year award, which goes to the player “deemed the best teammate based on selfless play, on- and off-court leadership as a mentor and role model to other NBA players, and commitment and dedication to team.”

Other nominees for that honor are Barnes, Brooklyn’s Mikal Bridges, New York’s Jalen Brunson, Denver’s Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, Orlando’s Markelle Fultz, Boston’s Al Horford, Indiana’s T.J. McConnell, New Orleans’ Larry Nance Jr, Cleveland’s Georges Niang, Dallas’ Dwight Powell and Oklahoma City’s Jalen Williams.

POM NOM

For the second straight month, Wolves guard Anthony Edwards was a nominee for the Western Conference Player of the Month award, which went to Dallas’ Luka Doncic.

In March, Edwards averaged 24.3 points, 6.6 rebounds and 5.1 assists while shooting 44 percent from the field. He put Minnesota on his shoulders through his explosiveness and also wise decision making to keep the Wolves in the race for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference even after Karl-Anthony Towns went down with a torn meniscus.

Related Articles

Fatigue setting in for Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards after Superman-like stretch

Timberwolves can’t get key shots to fall in loss to Bulls

Rudy Gobert notes improvements in Timberwolves’ organization in recent years

Conley’s Corner: Made in March

Timberwolves wax Denver to reclaim top spot in Western Conference