ST. PAUL, Minn - No one could have expected the final result of this game based on the first two periods. The Minnesota Wild (5-6-3) opened the first period with five high-danger chances against.
Constant turnovers led to multiple chances for the Nashville Predators (5-6-4). But Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson stood tall.
After a bad penalty by Michael Bunting, the Wild got their second power play chance of the opening period. Kirill Kaprizov and the top power play in the league, executed. It was Kaprizov's ninth goal of the year.
Even with the lead, the Wild's bad defensive play leaked into the second period. At one point Nashville outshot the Wild, 13-2. Matthew Wood tied the game at 1-1 after a turnover by Tyler Pitlick in the second.
But Zeev Buium answered on the power play to regain the lead. He jumped up into the slot and redirected a pass from Brock Faber into the back of the net past Justus Annunen.
“We always talk about good power plays everyone can play everywhere," Buium said. "You can’t be uncomfortable playing spots you’ve never played before. When you’re moving and you’re playing off instinct and just playing for each other, things like that can happen. Brock made a great play. Who knows? Maybe I’ll be the net-front guy.”
"Yeah, that was a good read," Wild head coach John Hynes said on the goal. "I think it was a nice read by Fabes too. I think the guy was in the shot lane for that shot tip play. So that was a good look."
Nashville continued to press in the third period but Gustavsson stood his ground. The Predators pulled Annunen for the extra attacker with about two minutes left.
The Wild had a chance at the empty net in the offensive zone but neither Matt Boldy or Joel Eriksson Ek could score.
Nashville went all the way back down and got the Wild trapped in the defensive zone. After a few icings and three face-off losses by Eriksson Ek, the Predators somehow tied it.
It came after Eriksson Ek went to clear the puck with two seconds left but the puck hit the ref along the boards. It then landed on the stick of Nick Blankenburg who later fed one to Steven Stamkos on the far side.
Stamkos, who hadn't scored or gotten a point in his last nine games, fired a one-timer that flew past the left shoulder of Gustavsson and into the net with 0.3 seconds left.
"All those one timers, you never know where they're shooting," Gustavsson said on the goal. "I don't think they know themselves either. I just missed it I guess."
Stamkos added: "Well, I took a peek at the clock with about eight seconds left. I knew any opportunity we’re gonna have to get the puck off quick. And we did a great job again of controlling the puck. We had some looks, some retrievals, some battles and just tried to get a shot off. Got a nice pass from Blankie and nice to see that go in."
After review it was clear that Stamkos scored with time still on the clock which sent this one to overtime.
Another possession type of overtime led to a very controversial goal.
Annunen, who had knocked the net off a different time, went to push off of the post when Kaprizov fed it across to Marcus Johansson. As Johansson went to shoot it, the net came off.
The referees instantly awarded it a goal even though the puck never went into the net.
"Yeah, I mean, I thought the explanation was, in his opinion, it was a goal," Predators head coach Andrew Brunette said. "I disagree with his opinion but that’s the way it is."
After having Toronto review it, it still remained a goal. The Wild left the ice satisfied with the win and the Predators stayed on the ice to try and get an explanation.
It is safe to say the Predators were not happy with the call but the rules clearly state that it is indeed a goal.
"The net clearly comes off. I don't know how the ref can stand there with a straight face and call it a goal, and then they call Toronto, and they still decide to call it a goal," Predators forward Michael McCarron said. "I mean, I'm dumbfounded. I feel like we got screwed tonight. I don't know how they can call that a goal, really. I mean, we outplayed the other team quite a bit tonight. I think we had our A game. We were going. We found a way to score at the end there late.
"Unfortunately, we weren't able to hit them where it hurts early in the in the second period, in the middle of second period, where we were all over them. I think that's really where we've got to have that killer instinct to put them away in that second period, and then it comes down to that, which is unfortunate. I still don't understand. I'd love to hear some more clarification on that how the NHL can think that's a goal. Unfortunate. We played our butts off tonight, and I think we deserve better."
Well here is what the NHL had to say.
Rule 63.7: In the event that the goal post is displaced, either deliberately or accidentally, by a defending player, prior to the puck crossing the goal line between the normal position of the goalposts, the Referee may award a goal. In order to award a goal in this situation, the goal post must have been displaced by the actions of a defending player, the attacking player must have an imminent scoring opportunity prior to the goal post being displaced, and it must be determined that the puck would have entered the net between the normal position of the goal posts.
Credit to Johansson. Even though the net was off, he still shot the puck as if the net was in place. This helped him get credit with the goal.
“No. I mean I didn’t know really what happened. Didn’t know if we were supposed to celebrate or not. Just kind of didn’t know what the call was going to be," Johansson said. "When it’s pushed off like that, maybe it’s the right thing to do. But thankfully I put it in even though the net wasn’t there.”
Nonetheless, the Wild will take it. A win is a win. We are now 14 games into the season and the Wild just won two straight games for the first time all season. They started the homestand 0-2-2 but finished it with two wins.
Time will tell if the Wild can build off of this or not with the back-to-back coming up on Thursday and Friday. But the win was huge to say the least.
“Yeah definitely," Johansson said on finishing the homestand with two wins. "We can’t do anything about the past now, but we need to keep building off of this, building and get some confidence off these wins and move in the right direction.”
