Minnesota Wild vs Vegas Golden Knights, Wednesday 3-10-21, 7:00pm, Xcel Energy Center

[CreaseAndAssist]

Wild's 3rd Period Surge Just Enough to Earn Sweep of Vegas in 4-3 Win

 

Exciting game, but the team letting off the gas in the 3rd is still a bit troubling.  Still, I like how the Wild got its goals.  Keeping it simple and crashing the net.  Suter and Spurgeon are the only Wild defenseman this season without a goal to their credit.  Nice series sweep after being swept by Vegas in Sin City, but now they have to refocus and be ready for a war of a 3-game series against the Coyotes.  I have a game recap, an Iowa Wild report, prospect news and full HS rankings too.  Enjoy!  

[ClusterChuck]

My wife watched the last 2 periods with me since it was on TV. 
She said it was fun but took a year off her life with that last 6 minutes.

[ClusterChuck]

Need to extend the 4 point lead over Az with the 3 games. At least a 7 point difference after it's in the books.

[Jimtown guy]

1 hour ago, bbgarnett said:

Have fun and Be safe

Made it out alive. I see they hung on. 2 points is 2 points 

[Jimtown guy]

[lynxrattle]

10 hours ago, Hockey-78 said:

Evason really creative when it comes to giving nick names: Hartman is Hartsy and Rask is, well of course, Rasky. 

 

https://twitter.com/mnwild/status/1369713686156357640?s=20

Thank God we don't have a Farrell in the roster...

 

The game was a nailbiter ! Not perfect but good enough. Tuch saved us this time. Takes a little bit of the sting of losing him away.

Edited March 11, 2021 by lynxrattle
Typo

[Alexandron]

20 hours ago, Jimtown guy said:

Made it out alive. I see they hung on. 2 points is 2 points 

I think we had 4 solid points in regulation in 2 games against the best team in our division. We made the best goalie in a league Fleury kind of shaky. 1st game we made a shutout and during the 2nd game he was replaced on a fly at 6 minutes before the end of the game after losing 4 goals. Hope we will be able to repeat our success in next 3 games against Arizona team. Battle between our best goalie rookie in a Wild history Kahkonen against our former Wild goalie Kuemper.

[Alexandron]

23 hours ago, TropicalFruitGirl26 said:

I agree.
I commented as much before..... The Wild need more guys that can hang with Kirill.
Zucc, actually, IS one of them, but in the grand scheme of things, Zucc isn't a superstar player (a very nice 1B type player or support player).

I know its easier said than done, especially with some of the large albatross contracts currently on the team, but Minnesota needs guys with some seriously high hockey IQ to go along with top shelf skill.
Right now, they seem to either have one or the other in various amounts, but not both in the one or two package players they need to maximize #97 on the ice.

Zuccarello is our magician. Kaprizov and Zuccarello able to provide snipers with golden passes. We should look better for them. Like I said before ,one our prospect Sokolov could be a candidate for that position. We must to try him here. That prospect had in OHL 128 goals in 3 seasons in a row (30;48;50 goals). And Svechnikov from Carolina was his assistant in Sokolov 50 goals.

[lynxrattle]

4 hours ago, Alexandron said:

Zuccarello is our magician. Kaprizov and Zuccarello able to provide snipers with golden passes. We should look better for them. Like I said before ,one our prospect Sokolov could be a candidate for that position. We must to try him here. That prospect had in OHL 128 goals in 3 seasons in a row (30;48;50 goals). And Svechnikov from Carolina was his assistant in Sokolov 50 goals.

So center-Zuccy-Sokolov or center-Kaprizov-Sokolov. That would break Zuccy-Misha pair, but free Z or Kaprizov to play with Fiala. If that would work we would have two scoring lines with potential. We still need those capable centres. Who knows maybe Rossi and Khusnutdinov, given time.

[Alexandron]

20 hours ago, lynxrattle said:

So center-Zuccy-Sokolov or center-Kaprizov-Sokolov. That would break Zuccy-Misha pair, but free Z or Kaprizov to play with Fiala. If that would work we would have two scoring lines with potential. We still need those capable centres. Who knows maybe Rossi and Khusnutdinov, given time.

Both (Rossi and Khusnutdinov) probably yes, but when? Guskov is also developing as a center.  And surprisingly Khovanov is a centerman too. He probably done with his season as Brennan Menell. His season in VHL was not bad at all - in 30 played games he had 24 points(8 goals;16 assists; +/- +5) and in 5 playoffs games he had 1 assist; +/- +2; plus he had 7 games in KHL, but without points. 

[lynxrattle]

Khovanov's clearly not making it, with those numbers. Perhaps he'll get better. Guskov's numbers were better earlier in his career, but there seems to some stagnation for whatever reason. He's only 20, so there is a couple of years to get better.

[Alexandron]

On 3/11/2021 at 11:05 PM, lynxrattle said:

So center-Zuccy-Sokolov or center-Kaprizov-Sokolov. That would break Zuccy-Misha pair, but free Z or Kaprizov to play with Fiala. If that would work we would have two scoring lines with potential. We still need those capable centres. Who knows maybe Rossi and Khusnutdinov, given time.

Good idea. Probably,would be interesting to try Fiala with Sokolov too who able to play LW or RW as well as Fiala.

[Alexandron]

14 hours ago, lynxrattle said:

Khovanov's clearly not making it, with those numbers. Perhaps he'll get better. Guskov's numbers were better earlier in his career, but there seems to some stagnation for whatever reason. He's only 20, so there is a couple of years to get better.

For 2 years of playing in KHL they will get a superb professional experience for the NHL, of course, if they will show a tremendous progress there. Still not sure if they will get a chance to play here.An example, Brennan Menell who is still not signed after showing superb results for 3 seasons in a row in AHL and 1 season in KHL. He really merit this contract.

[lynxrattle]

Menell has five games in the Wild with no points. I didn't see those games, but let me guess. He was getting points here and there in Iowa, and then in his tryout in the big league he was given 10 minutes a game as 6D with no PP time and the message "don't get fancy" or we'll haul your ass back to Iowa in a jiffy. If he's a do or die offensive d-man, let him try playing in that role.