The Minnesota Wild were supposed to be the the butt of more than a few jokes this season. They started the season badly and for the hockey world, it appeared that many in the organization were on the hot seat.
Well, you can stop with the joke formulations. At least for now.
On Tuesday night, rookie goalie Kaapo Kahkonen made 44 saves in a 4-2 for the Wild in Sunrise over the Florida Panthers.
“Obviously anytime you win, that’s why you play,” Kahkonen said. “The feeling you have after a game in the locker room with the guys when you win, it’s something that you never get tired of.”
The Wild trailed 0-2 after the Panthers struck twice in the first period.
Jonathan Huberdeau and Aleksander Barkov scored for Florida.
“We just got away from the things we did in the first period,” Barkov said. “Started turning over pucks, and that’s the result. As a team, you’ve got to keep playing simple; run them down in their zone, and we didn’t do that in the second and third period. We started turning over pucks, and that’s the result.”
Carson Soucy scored what would be the game-winner with less than five minutes gone in the third period.
“All I said [after the first period] was the game is 0-0 if we win the next two periods,” Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau said. “If we win the second, then the third you’re right where you want to be. You have to find a way to motivate them. Some nights you yell at them and some nights you try to use common sense. Today was a common sense thing, which I don’t have much of.”
Jason Zucker and Mats Zuccarello scored to get the even even at 2-2.
“We’re just happy with the way we’re playing,” Zucker said. “We’ve just got to keep that going, keep playing the same game and try to keep it going.”
Luke Kunin added an empty-net goal to seal it.
[WATCH: All Wild vs. Panthers Highlights]
Chris Driedger made 22 saves in the loss.
“We just started to get sloppy at the blue line, started turning pucks over,” Panthers defenseman MacKenzie Weegar said. “We know that we can play offense, but it’s just been kind of the story this year. We’ve been giving up too many chances, and in the second and third we did that.”
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