LOS ANGELES — In their penultimate recreation of the season Monday, the Minnesota Wild beat a staff above them within the Western Conference standings for a change with an all-around stable effort at Crypto.com Arena.
Kirill Kaprizov scored a aim and help, Matt Boldy and Ryan Hartman scored the opposite objectives and Filip Gustavsson — in his final begin of his 2023-24 marketing campaign — made 23 saves because the Wild defeated the Kings, 3-1, in their last road recreation. Blake Lizotte ruined Gustavsson’s shutout bid with 5:24 to go.
Marco Rossi performed his best recreation in a while with a pair of assists, together with one the place he fought off a examine earlier than Kaprizov deliberately banked his forty fifth aim off the again of Cam Talbot’s head from behind the aim line.
NHL objectives the previous three seasons
Matthews 169
Pastrnak 148
Draisaitl 148
McDavid 140
Kaprizov 132
Rantanen 132— Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) April 16, 2024
The Wild completed their last road journey of the season with a 3-2-1 report and ended the season 19-18-4 on the road.
The staff spent the evening in California and can fly again to Minnesota on Tuesday morning earlier than working towards Wednesday in preparation for Thursday’s final recreation of the season towards the Seattle Kraken.
Just a few extra notes:
- The Wild completed the season with 9 wins in 31 games towards the 9 groups forward of them within the West. They had misplaced 12 of their final 13 games towards these groups earlier than Monday’s victory.
- The Wild went 4 for 4 on the penalty kill.
- Freddy Gaudreau, who missed two games after the beginning of his first baby, Felix, joined the Wild in L.A. and performed towards the Kings. He skated on the fourth line with Jake Lucchini and Mason Shaw. Mats Zuccarello missed his third recreation in a row for comparable household causes. Coach John Hynes hadn’t talked to Zuccarello, however though he hasn’t performed or practiced since final Tuesday’s recreation in Colorado, he anticipates that Zuccarello will play in Thursday’s finale towards Seattle.
- Marc-Andre Fleury, who hasn’t finalized his determination but whether or not to retire or re-sign with the Wild, will begin Thursday’s finale.
🚨KAPRIZOV FROM BELOW THE GOAL LINE 3-RIP #mnwild pic.twitter.com/nJmciRrJM0
— brendan durand (@Bdurand_16) April 16, 2024
Boldy performs with jam
On the day Hynes stated throughout a Q&A in The Athletic that for Boldy to change into a real star he wants so as to add an influence recreation to his repertoire, Boldy did simply that towards the Kings. Boldy entered the sport with 32 hits this season. On his first shift, when Mikey Anderson tried to step up on him on the blue line, Boldy floored him, then later checked him arduous into the glass and adopted up with a two-handed slash. Boldy confirmed from the outset he got here to play with fireplace. As Hynes stated, “He has the ability to make skill plays, but for him to continue to be on track, to be a dominant player, to be dominant in the playoffs, where…I understand he has not been, I think that with his power game, playing a big power forward combined with his skills, he could be a real force to be reckoned with.” Boldy’s aim was a magnificence, his twenty ninth of the season after stable performs by Brock Faber and Rossi. If he scores Thursday, he’ll register the twelfth 30-goal season in Wild historical past and his second in a row.
Power play aim for Minnesota!
Scored by Matt Boldy with 05:46 remaining within the 1st interval.
Assisted by Marco Rossi and Brock Faber.
Los Angeles: 0
Minnesota: 1#MINvsLAK #GoKingsGo #MNWild pic.twitter.com/ftLe9YWZlq— NHL Goals (@nhl_goal_bot) April 16, 2024
Faber-Ohgren impress, coincidentally, in L.A.
It was two summers in the past that the Wild traded Kevin Fiala to the Kings for Faber and a first-round choose that they changed into Liam Ohgren. Both gamers had been in Monday’s lineup and each gamers impressed. One recreation after a stable effort in San Jose, Faber was excellent on either side of the puck. Just take a look at the particular rush up the ice he executed on the sequence above en path to Boldy’s aim for a 1-0 lead. And one recreation after scoring his first profession aim (a game-winner) and his first profession multi-point recreation in San Jose, Ohgren once more flashed his talent and smarts in L.A. During one shift within the first interval, he stole two pucks for two counterattacks, was alert sufficient on the primary to attend for Marcus Johansson to get onside earlier than getting into the zone and received a puck battle behind the online.
#mnwild defenseman Brock Faber has reached 150 blocked pictures for the season, turning into the ninth NHL rookie to achieve the mark because the league started monitoring the stat in 2005-06. pic.twitter.com/49xivuhx2m
— Minnesota Wild PR (@mnwildPR) April 16, 2024
Wild go 11 forwards, seven defensemen once more
With the Wild getting little secondary scoring, Hynes has gone with 11 forwards and 7 defensemen a quantity of occasions of late. One huge purpose is to get Kaprizov and Boldy extra ice time, particularly once they have greater than one time off on the horizon like they do Tuesday and Wednesday. But the profit of sitting Adam Beckman and Vinni Lettieri on this evening was to permit rookies Ohgren and Marat Khusnutdinov to play nearly each shift with both Kaprizov and Boldy on their wing. It’s been some extent of rivalry by Wild followers ever since Khusnutdinov debuted that he has needed to play many games subsequent to underachieving Johansson and Gaudreau. That was hardly the case Monday towards the Kings.
Said Hynes, “You’re trying to evaluate these guys too a little bit, but also giving Kirill a couple extra shifts, Boldy a couple extra shifts, you’re putting two really good players on the ice a little bit more than they normally would. And I think playing with Ohgren and Khusnutdinov helps them, too, and now you can see those two players play with that style or that level of a player and I think it gives you a little bit more of an evaluation of them, too, and how they think the game, how they play in most situations. And both have played very well with Boldy and with Kaprizov.”
Three stars
Ryan Hartman doubles the lead 😤 pic.twitter.com/bgGsg50Fdu
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) April 16, 2024
1. Kirill Kaprizov, Wild: The star set the tone early with oodles of scoring probabilities. He then assisted on Hartman’s aim within the second after Joel Eriksson Ek picked Anze Kopitar’s pocket, executed one heck of a backcheck to crush Fiala and wreck a Kings’ scoring probability early within the third, and made it 3-0 by slyly banking a shot in off Talbot.
2. Filip Gustavsson, Wild: After permitting 9 objectives in his earlier two begins, Gustavsson rebounded with a robust effort. His best save got here early within the third to protect a 2-0 lead with a theft on Alex Laferriere.
3. Matt Boldy, Wild: Played the sort of arduous recreation the Wild wish to see persistently sooner or later and was rewarded with a aim.
Quotes of the evening
“We played well. From the start to the end, pretty complete game. Some nice goals, some good defensive plays, some good blocks, a little bit of everything.” — Boldy
“After the Colorado game, I think reality set in a little bit. The Vegas game was what it was, but we addressed it. And the response the last two games and just the environment around the room and the focus and level to play is what it needs to be regardless of the situation. We talked about handling it the right way. We don’t like the situation that we’re in, but the only thing we can control is how we go about it. And the guys did a really good job tonight.” — Hynes
“Smart. I mean, really smart move. It’s really tough to defend. I mean, the goalie can’t defend it really. The only way to defend it is if it bounces the right way for the goalie, but smart.” — Hynes on Kaprizov’s financial institution shot off Talbot’s masks
“It’s been a long year. It’s been a lot of ups and downs. Some very tough nights. Some very good nights. The consistency just hasn’t been there this year. This game, it’s a good way to finish it off.” — Gustavsson
“I don’t know. He just go in the middle. I just stop. I feel I don’t do nothing. I just stop. That’s it. I ask after if he’s OK.” — Kaprizov on his huge backcheck that dumped his former teammate, Fiala
“When you don’t make playoffs … you don’t care. I want to be in playoffs. I (get) a lot of points. Now you should be more happy. And now just OK, nothing crazy.” — Kaprizov, mainly saying he doesn’t care about his 45 objectives and 95 factors as a result of his season ends Thursday.
Required studying
(Photo: Kirby Lee / USA Today)
