In a tale of two halves, Wild bend but don't break against Kraken: 4 takeaways

By / / Sports / 8 minutes of reading


SEATTLE — If Sunday’s win against Boston was what Filip Gustavsson called a “dirty” win, Tuesday’s victory against the Kraken was an “ugly win.”

Well, the first half was actually quite pretty.

The back half? Not so much.

After the Wild built a 3-goal lead, they bent but didn’t break during a 4-3 victory at Climate Pledge Arena despite registering one shot on goal in the last 30 minutes and 1 second.

“We had a great 30 minutes and a bad 30 minutes, and then fortunately we get the 2 points,” said right winger Mats Zuccarello, whose gorgeous goal for a 4-1 lead 8:22 into the second turned out to be the winner. “We got some huge blocks and then Gus. First half was ours, the second half was theirs, and then we still found a way to win.”

Gustavsson stopped 33 of 36 shots, including all 11 in a third period where the Wild defended hard and well but couldn’t generate any semblance of an offensive attack.

“You wish you would just win by so many goals every game, and make it easy,” center Freddy Gaudreau said. “But that’s not the reality, and that’s hockey. Sometimes you got to find ways to win in different games. And tonight was one of those. We needed Gus and he did what Gus does.”

Zuccarello, Gaudreau, Marcus Johansson and Jared Spurgeon had two points apiece and Vinnie Hinostroza was once again a net-front menace and was awarded with yet another goal.

The Wild, who were blown out in each of their past two road games, improved to a league-best 22-9-3 (47 points) on the road. That’s three more wins than the Wild had in 41 road games last season and two wins from matching the franchise record set in 2014-15.

“We had a great half. They had a great half. And our half was better than their half,” defenseman Brock Faber said. “That’s sometimes how games are. You wanna play a full 60 minute-game, obviously, all the time, but teams are gonna have pushbacks.”

The Wild flew to Vancouver after the game. They’ll take Wednesday off, practice there Thursday and play the Canucks on Friday night — seven hours after the trade deadline.

Hinostroza the revelation

Playing on a line with one of his best friends, Hinostroza continues to be quite the waiver pickup for the Wild.

Hinostroza picked up his fourth goal in eight games since joining the club after the Wild needed a forward when Ryan Hartman was suspended eight games for his match penalty last month on Ottawa’s Tim Stutzle. Hinostroza and Hartman grew up together in Chicago and played hockey and football together growing up. Hinostroza was also in Hartman’s wedding two summers ago.

Hartman returned to the lineup for the first time since Feb. 1, centered Marcus Foligno and Hinostroza, who continued his strong play.

On the No. 1 power play since Joel Eriksson Ek was hurt, Hinostroza camped himself at the net front and deflected Zuccarello’s shot for a 1-0 lead, then screened Joey Daccord for a Hartman to Jared Spurgeon goal for a 2-1 lead. The goal came after Hartman won a board battle and Foligno was in a puck battle behind the net.

“That’s kind of how he’s played since he’s been here,” coach John Hynes said. “He gets into those areas of the ice. He’s a tenacious competitor and he’s willing to get into that area often and that’s why you’re starting to see when he’s on the ice lots of times there’s success at the net front.”

The best part of the Hinostroza pickup? He’s on a two-way contract that pays him a league minimum of $775,000, and he has one more year left on his contract. So he could be an affordable piece if he makes next year’s roster out of camp.

The second line has another solid night

Since being assembled, the Johansson-Gaudreau-Zuccarello line has been solid for the Wild.

One game after they combined for the only goal in a 1-0 win over Boston and two games after Gaudreau and Johansson set up Zuccarello’s goal in Denver, the line was stellar against the Kraken.

Gaudreau scored his 14th goal — five off his career-high — after taking Johansson’s pass in the slot, battling with a defender, spinning and firing at the net. The puck ricocheted in off of Jamie Oleksiak’s skate as Zuccarello battled for position in front.

That gave the Wild a 3-1 lead.

But the goal to give the Wild a 4-1 lead was terrific.

It started with Johansson’s solid stick and takeaway in the defensive zone to trigger a quick counterattack and three-on-two led by Gaudreau. Johansson carried the puck into the zone along the left-wing boards, then passed off, centered himself and executed a perfect give-and-go with Zuccarello before Johansson gave Zuccarello a completely wide-open net to shoot into.

Gaudreau joked that he was getting dizzy constantly turning his head left and right to watch the passing between Johansson and Zuccarello.

“That was a beautiful play,” he said.

“It’s fun when you get those opportunities to have a clear-cut three-on-two and make some plays,” Johansson added.

The second period unravels

The Wild were playing with fire all second period, but it looked like they would escape after Gustavsson stopped the fourth penalty shot of his career and then the Wild put forth a gutsy penalty kill right after.

Faber was called for both infractions.

Oliver Bjorkstrand spurred Eeli Tolvanen for a breakaway. Faber pushed Tolvanen off the puck, but referee Chris Schlenker somehow saw a slash and gave Tolvanen a penalty shot.

“I was confused because I think if you’re going to call a penalty shot, it should be the right call,” Hynes said. “So, to me, I have a question if you’re going to call a penalty shot, you gotta be sure you know exactly what went on. It was not a slash.”

Faber also boarded Tolvanen after the play, so after the unsuccessful penalty shot, Seattle got a power play. The Kraken were denied four times by Gustavsson, and the Wild also got a gutsy shift from Gaudreau while he played without a stick after handing his to Jake Middleton, who broke his.

“Obviously, you hate to hit a guy from behind,” Faber said. “That’s obviously dangerous and scary and for me, that’s never happened, where I’ve gotten two penalties in one, but I’m glad the guys were able to kill it, and Gus was able to make the save on the penalty shot.”

But after Zuccarello’s goal for a 4-1 lead, the game fell apart as the Kraken pushed and pushed to get back in the game. The Wild didn’t help themselves by scrambling around their own zone and constantly turning pucks over.

Finally, Declan Chisholm took a hooking penalty that led to Shane Wright’s power-play goal, and then Brandon Montour scored with 11 seconds left in the period to send the game into the third period with a 4-3 Kraken deficit. The Wild were outshot 9-0 in the last 10:01 of the period.

“I thought we lost a little bit (of our game) when it got 4-1,” Hynes said. “Then the game got a little bit squirrely obviously with the penalties, the penalty shot, there was some momentum on the power play but there was also momentum on our kill.

“Then I just thought it just became a little bit of a game of inches. We just weren’t as hard on the puck. We didn’t close on some battles, and they had a push but I think we allowed them to get a little bit more time and space and feed the momentum that they were going into the game. So, to me, that’s a great lesson for us moving forward and it’s better to win and learn some lessons than lose and learn some lessons. Good on our guys to find a way to win the game and we’ll take two points and we’ll also take some good lessons out of it.”

Shore’s goal overturned

The Wild may have had only one shot in the third, but they did have a goal overturned.

It looked like former Kraken Devin Shore scored 2:50 into the third period when Jakub Lauko won a battle for the puck and Shore scored after Daccord poke-checked the puck to him. But Kraken coach Dan Bylsma challenged a missed stoppage by the officials after replays appeared to show Lauko playing the puck with a high stick.

After a nearly five-minute review, the NHL’s Situation Room in Toronto determined that Lauko’s stick “was above the normal height of his shoulders when he contacted the puck” two seconds before Shore’s goal.

“From our angles, we didn’t see anywhere he touched it,” Hynes said. “I’m assuming that they had an angle that we weren’t able to see to make the call.”

(Photo of Filip Gustavsson protecting the net against the Kraken in the second period: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)





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About The Author

Avatar of Fannie Hogan
Fannie Hogan is a writer and editor who covers lifestyle, books, sports, education, and tech. She's always loved to write—from the time she was a little girl writing stories about talking animals to the day she got her first job as an editor at a lifestyle magazine. Her hobbies include long walks on the beach, running, and taking breaks from work to read a good book.

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