Minnesota Wild defeat Golden Knights in shootout at T-mobile
Entertaining game ends in shootout loss
The Golden Knights and Minnesota
Wild entered Thursday’s game at T-mobile Arena each having played the night before.
The Knights also came in short-handed with 16 skaters because of injuries, a suspension and their tight salary cap situation. Everyone would have forgiven the teams for easing off the gas a little.
Instead, the two teams provided one of the most entertaining, back-and-forth games of the season. Minnesota came away victorious after right wing Kevin Fiala scored the lone goal of a shootout.
The 3-2 loss put the Knights in a tie with the Colorado Avalanche atop the West Division.
The game got interesting early when the Knights came out for warmups a few skaters short. Right wing Ryan Reaves (upper body) and defenseman Zach Whitecloud (lower body) missed the game with injuries. Center Chandler Stephenson sat out after receiving a three-game suspension Thursday for elbowing in Wednesday’s game against the Los Angeles Kings.
The Knights didn’t have the salary cap space to call up enough reinforcements
to fill out a full lineup. Defenseman Dylan Coghlan played as an emergency recall since Reaves also did not play Wednesday, but that still left two spots vacant.
It would have been hard to tell the Knights were playing short-handed, however. They and the Wild traded chances and odd-man rushes with all the force their legs could muster.
The Knights broke through first, 3:29 into the game, on a goal from center William Karlsson. Defenseman Shea Theodore carried the puck through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone and tried to send a pass to left wing Jonathan Marchessault in the slot. The pass was deflected away, and Karlsson threw it past Wild goaltender Cam Talbot.
Minnesota answered 4:28 later after a quick transition of its own. Defenseman Jonas Brodien sent a long pass through the neutral zone that was tipped into the Knights’ end.
Left wing Jordan Greenway picked it up at the bottom of the left circle, and his centering feed was redirected into the net by rookie right wing Kirill Kaprizov.
The chances kept coming, but the goals dried up. Both goaltenders were too tough to break the rest of the first two periods.
Talbot came up with some spectacular saves. He denied rookie right wing Keegan Kolesar once with his glove and once with the paddle of his stick in the second. He also stopped right wing Alex Tuch on a breakaway for one of his 35 saves.
Knights goalie Robin Lehner was just as strong. He stopped center Joel Eriksson in tight twice in the second period for two of his 35 saves and stayed composed despite the chaotic game around him.
Talbot allowed another goal 1:39 into the third period. Defenseman Brayden Mcnabb sent a shot from the point through traffic for his first goal since Nov. 21, 2019.
The Wild tied the game 4:52 later on a goal from defenseman Jared Spurgeon on a fouron-three power play.
Neither side could score again, even though the Knights got a power play 33 seconds into overtime.
Talbot stopped Marchessault, Theodore andtuc hint he shootout to get the wild the extra point.