CALGARY — If the Minnesota Wild are going to have to play for a while without Kirill Kaprizov on top of Mats Zuccarello already being sidelined, Wild teammates will have to step up if they plan to keep going what has been a tremendous first quarter of their season.
Saturday afternoon at the Scotiabank Saddledome, a handful like Marco Rossi, Marcus Johansson and Brock Faber did just that as the Wild pulled off a late-game rally for a point in the standings that could have easily been two had they converted in the shootout.
The Wild had two chances to end the shootout with a victory. Instead, the Flames’ Rasmus Andersson put the finishing touch on a 4-3 shootout win for the Flames in the fifth round.
“Frustrating, but five out of six on a hard road trip is something we’ll take,” Faber said.
Kaprizov, who looked to injure his right knee two nights earlier in Edmonton, is for now deemed day to day. But what’s concerning is the fact that it’s abundantly clear that the Wild brass is extremely angry that this is the second time in three years that Kaprizov has been hurt by a fringe NHLer.
In 2023, it was Winnipeg’s Logan Stanley. Now it was Drake Caggiula. In both cases, no calls were made on the plays.
As far as Kaprizov’s prognosis, coach John Hynes, who Friday said the Wild star avoided major injury, would no longer go that far until he’s examined by team doctors in the Twin Cities on Sunday.
“I don’t even want to go down that road with you guys because (Friday) we talked about it,” Hynes said. “So, I don’t have any more information on it. He’s going to get evaluated again (Sunday) and then we’ll go from there.”
GO DEEPER
Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov out with lower-body injury, to be evaluated Sunday: Source
In the first two periods Saturday, the Wild played a good, hard game but looked very much like a team that was without two of their best scorers, as well as fourth-line center and penalty killer Marat Khusnutdinov, who was out with a lower-body injury.
Other than Johansson, who scored a goal and had eight of the Wild’s 23 shots, few players were generating chances and the Flames went 2 for 2 on the power play.
But after the Flames took a 3-1 lead early in the third, the Wild rallied on Faber’s power-play goal with 3:59 left, then Rossi’s tying goal with 34 seconds left as the extra attacker on the ice. Rossi’s assignment with the net empty was to change for the defenseman, in this case, Jake Middleton.
Rossi had only been on the ice for 30 seconds when he took advantage of a broken play, found a puck heading his way off Joel Eriksson Ek and buried it from where he scores most of his goals — right in front of the goalmouth.
Marco Rossi – Minnesota Wild (6) pic.twitter.com/tiRV2YSdLh
— NHL Goal Videos (@NHLGoalVideos) November 23, 2024
“It was tough adversity on this road trip,” Rossi said. “It was going to be three big games for us, and especially when Kirill is out, it’s our best player. And it’s hard. When you lose the best players, we know, as a team, we have to stick together. And everyone had to step up today. I think we did a pretty good job.”
The Wild had a few great chances in overtime, and Filip Gustavsson helped get the game to a shootout with a sliding robbery on Yegor Sharangovich. But in the shootout, after Freddy Gaudreau opened the scoring, Justin Kirkland and Andersson scored while the last four Wild shooters couldn’t. It didn’t help that Kaprizov and Zuccarello, two of the Wild’s best shootout players are hurt, but both Eriksson Ek and Rossi could have ended the game with a win.
Still, for the Wild to be down two with four minutes left and muster a point without Kaprizov, they’ll take it.
“Lots of positives from tonight’s game,” Hynes said. “It’s all these situations early in the year: Can you find a way to come through? Do you stay with it? Can you overcome adversity? Can you find a way to grind out wins, grind out points?
“We certainly did that tonight and proud of the group.”
The game was full of adversity, too, with some perplexing calls … and non-calls.
The Wild were ticked with referee Ghislain Hebert calling Jakub Lauko for a goalie interference penalty despite the fact he was way down at center ice when his partner, Jordan Samuels-Thomas, was standing five feet away and didn’t make a call. The Flames scored on the power play to take a 2-1 lead.
Jakub Lauko with a goaltender interference penalty #mnwild pic.twitter.com/S7xVzTZgCd
— Lucasparmenter23 (@Lucasparmenter0) November 23, 2024
“The ref that’s right there seeing it doesn’t make a call. And then the ref that has a net in front of him and can’t see actually what happened and just looking at the result (does),” Ryan Hartman said. “Kind of an FU to his partner.”
Hebert also allowed MacKenzie Weegar to cross-check Hartman twice in the head late in the second period while he was on the ice without making a call. When Matt Boldy skated to Hartman’s defense and basically did nothing, Hebert called Boldy and Weegar for coincidental roughing minors and ignored Weegar’s violent cross-checks.
Looks like MacKenzie Weegar thought Ryan Hartman dove on that play 😅 pic.twitter.com/q23yKKm4VB
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 23, 2024
Asked about that sequence, Hartman not-so subtly pointed out Hebert was one of the two refs that didn’t call Kaprizov being kneed/tripped in Edmonton.
“I mean, we’re missing our best player right now and there was no penalty call on that,” Hartman said.
It was Hartman who took a high-sticking penalty in the third that led to a power-play goal for a 3-1 lead. But that call, too, could have been evened up because Kadri reacted by high-sticking him. To be fair, Samuels was the ref in that situation.
Regardless, the Wild found a way to strive through and still get to overtime.
“Those are parts of the game we can’t control,” Hynes said. “What is (important) is maintaining focus in those situations. We did a good job of that. We had adversity tonight with guys coming in, we don’t know who’s out, who’s in, who’s going to play. Obviously in Edmonton with the goals called back and those things, but I just like our demeanor.
“Our focus is there. It’s what’s next, what can we control, keeping our energy and mindset in the right place and that’s what ultimately gives you the opportunity to be successful when you’re channeling your energy and your mindset.”
Hynes loved the fact that Rossi came through in the clutch, that Johansson continued his strong play of late, and that they got good shifts out of an all-Iowa fourth line of Devin Shore, Ben Jones and Travis Boyd.
Marcus Johansson ties the game off a great play by Matt Boldy. Johansson with goals in back to back games & points in three straight pic.twitter.com/4BlOVSgTVs
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) November 23, 2024
The big worry is how long Kaprizov is out and whether this can continue if it’ll be for a while.
These are big voids.
“We still have a good team even though Kirill’s out,” Johansson said. “Obviously, when you’re missing maybe the best player in the world right now, it’s not a good thing. But we still have other players that can play and I think we showed that today. Guys stepped up and played big minutes and, yeah, missing both Zuccy and Kirill, it’s not great for us but it is what it is and we have to find ways to win anyways.”
Naturally, the Wild’s next big test?
The Winnipeg Jets on Monday night.
“Good comeback, so we just try to keep going because we know next week it’s going to be a big battle against Winnipeg,” Rossi said.
(Photo: Brett Holmes / Imagn Images)
