ST. PAUL – The first two-and-half minutes of this road game featured solid Kraken shifts that generated offensive-zone puck possession and a strong handful of shots on goal. The next two minutes? Not so much. Western Conference wild-card leader Minnesota scored three goals on six shots in two minutes and two seconds. Dizzying numbers, were enough for Seattle coach Dan Bylsma to use his one allowed timeout with 4:29 elapsed on the clock.
From there, matters settled with the Kraken, who cranked nine more shots on goal in the opening frame while holding the home squad to just two shots on goal. And that included two penalties expertly snuffed by the Kraken PK units in the last 10 minutes of the period. But those three Wild goals scored on Philipp Grubauer and his teammates pretty much salted the outcome of this game.
The eventual 4-0 Minnesota win prevented Seattle from winning on the second night of back-to-back for the first time in 11 attempts. The Kraken travel next to Edmonton for a Saturday matchup. To make matters sting a bit more, Kraken leading scorer Chandler Stephenson left the game in the second period with an undisclosed injury, not to return. There was no update from coach Dan Bylsma after the game.
Bylsma noted the first goal was incomplete defensive zone coverage while the second goal was “an unfortunate turnover and bounce” with the puck caroming off Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson’s skate going “right to the slot, which gave them a 2-on-1 with Wild co-goal scoring leader Matt Boldy finishing the play.
“The third goal was just a miscue and misread on a rush against,” said Bylsma. “Now it’s three-nothing. It’s uncharacteristic of our team as of late. Grubi made a couple of other big saves to keep it at three, but just too many early opportunities for them ... it was a competitive match the rest of the way, we just couldn't find a goal to claw back into the game.”
The outcome strengthened Minnesota’s hold on the top wild-card spot in the Western Conference and closed the gap behind division foe Colorado to two standings points with the Avalanche and their seven new trade acquisitions losing in Toronto Tuesday. The Wild are playing without key skaters, most particularly star scorer Kirill Kaprizov who has missed 31 of his team’s last 34 games yet was leads in goals with 23. Young star winger Matt Boldy tallied his 22nd score of the year to make it 2-0 just four minutes into the game, then scored an empty-net goal to tie Kaprizov for the team lead.
A half-minute later, American Hockey League call-up Liam Ohgren scored his second goal of the year in 24 appearances while the first Minnesota goal came off the stick of veteran center Ryan Hartman, who has now scored three goals in his eight games back after an eight-game suspension for slew-footing (using a foot or leg to knock an opponent's feet out from under him.) in the faceoff against Edmonton star Leon Draisaitl.
“Against a team like that, they're playing playoff hockey,” said Kraken defenseman Jamie Oleksiak. “They got to a lead early, and they're not going to give you much after that. we were scratching and clawing for chances. They shut it down pretty well. We’ve played some good hockey recently, but we just got to keep learning.”
