In St Paul, Filip Gustavsson made 35 saves in a 2-1 win for the Minnesota Wild over the visiting Vancouver Vancouver Canucks on Saturday afternoon. 
“How we are playing now, it feels more comfortable,” Gustavsson said. “Earlier in the year if we were in these types of games, it didn’t feel like we created as many chances and it didn’t feel like we could score in these types of games. Now, it feels like we’re still creating the chances. The other goalie (Marc-Andre Fleury) has played very well, and you just have to wait for the chances to go in.”
Mats Zuccarello was the lone striker on penalties for the win.
“Coming into the game, that’s one thing we talked with the team about was just that it was going to be a game where we wanted to take away their time and space,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “We knew our time and space was going to be taken away. Fighting for ice was a big part of it, and then really going into the third period we had to get the big (penalty) kill and then we knew it was going to be a grinding third period, and I thought we did a pretty good job handling that.”
The Wild improved to 12-12-4.
The Wild took a 1-0 lead with just under two minutes left in the opening stanza on a marker from Frederick Gaudreau, off an assist from Marcus Foligno.
“I just saw him leak by their [defensemen],” Foligno said. “I think the way the puck kind of slowed down over the blue line and kind of gave us a little bit more time and they got kind of stuck in between, and I just thought that he was alone and he made that great tip on that play. I kind of gave him a rolling puck, so he did great with it.”
Vancouver dropped to 20-9-2.
“I liked the third (period),” Canucks coach Rick Tocchet said. “Obviously, the first two (periods) were kind of, I don’t know if it’s the plane ride, not being able to skate. I don’t know what you attribute it to but the execution was a little bit off the first couple. Then we started to find ourselves a little bit.”
The Canucks scored early in the middle frame on a strike by 3:50 at 3:50 to tie the game, 1-1.
“It was a good effort,” Blueger said. “I think probably not our best, not our sharpest. The execution wasn’t as good as we have been and we’d like to be, but we stuck with it. Obviously, Casey held us in there for a bit. Stuck with it, guys were blocking shots, competing, things like that. So, we put ourselves in good position to win. Obviously, didn’t get it done in the end, but I think the effort was pretty good.”
Casey DeSmith made 30 saves in the loss.
“It’s a different sort of game. It’s just 1-on-1,” DeSmith said. “The guy’s got all the time in the world, so it’s definitely a little bit different feel than even overtime or 5-on-5. A little bit different. Nice to get in one, I guess, but wish we came out on top.”
You must be logged in to post a comment.