ST. PAUL, Minn. — The first time the Wild played the Panthers this season, it turned into a statement victory over the reigning Cup champs. And that 5-1 win in Sunrise certainly was a spark for what turned out to be a surprising first-half run.
But Wednesday’s 6-1 loss to Florida felt like a bit of the opposite, and more of a reflection of the state of the Wild right now.
It’s remarkable Minnesota went this deep into the season before losing their second consecutive game in regulation. But the Wild are in a funk, having dropped four of their last six.
Injuries are clearly taking their toll, with top goalie Filip Gustavsson, defenseman Jake Middleton and forward Joel Eriksson Ek among the regulars out of the lineup. That didn’t help against one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference. But some of their top guys, including Brock Faber and Jonas Brodin, had a rough night Wednesday.
Matt Boldy was a minus-3 and took the penalty that led to a Panthers power-play goal. Ryan Hartman, in a lengthy offensive slump, failed to get back defensively on the Panthers’ third goal. And Florida scored five straight goals to make this one a rout.
Slip and slide
The Wild have had to rely on their depth from AHL Iowa as of late due to injuries, with a bunch of forwards filling in.
That includes Ben Jones, who had a tough night on Wednesday.
The Panthers took the lead for good with just under two minutes left in the first period on an innocent-looking play that went sideways. Marcus Foligno sent a stretch pass from deep in the Wild zone to Jones, who was positioned around the Panthers blue line. Jared Spurgeon and others went off to change, thinking the puck would be carried or chipped in deep. But Jones lost his footing around the puck and went down, sparking Florida’s transition. One pass later and Mackie Samoskevich had an open look off the rush, and he buried it with a great wrist shot over Marc-Andre Fleury’s right shoulder.
THE KID IS ALRIGHT! pic.twitter.com/Qr7YqJNBlb
— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) December 19, 2024
This is where the loss of injured forwards Jakob Lauko and Yakov Trenin is hurting the Wild, as they’d be filling in those third- and fourth-line spots. Minnesota isn’t getting much at all from their bottom six right now. While Lauko is still out for a while, Trenin is closer as he skated with the team the last two days and could return Friday against Utah.
The no goal(s)
The Wild thought they had tied the game midway through the first period on an unreal redirect by — who else? — Kirill Kaprizov. But it was overturned after a review for goalie interference. Kaprizov slid into the high slot and got the back of his stick on a Declan Chisholm point shot, clearly stunning Sergei Bobrovsky.
But replays showed Marco Rossi came across the top of the crease and made contact with Bobrovsky’s left shoulder moments before the shot. It did appear that Bobrovsky had time to reset before the goal, and the veteran goaltender certainly seemed to sell it. But with contact like that close to a goal, the decision was made.
No goal pic.twitter.com/GWDIKk00a8
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) December 19, 2024
But the Wild also benefited from a coach’s challenge, making them 3-for-3 for the season (stick taps to video coaches Jonas Plumb and TJ Jindra). With around six minutes left in the second period, Aleksander Barkov looked to have made it a 3-1 Panthers lead. Florida had Minnesota pinned in for an extended shift in the offensive zone. Plumb and Jindra had to look back 46 seconds to when the Panthers entered the zone offside.
‘Gus’ closer?
There appeared to be some encouraging news with Gustavsson Wednesday, as he did some on-ice work in the morning alongside fellow injured teammate Eriksson Ek.
Coach John Hynes said they’re going to wait and see how he responds to that latest test, with there being a chance Gustavsson return comes this weekend for a back-to-back with Utah and Winnipeg.
The Wild are likely to ride Fleury for the time being, with the future Hall of Famer having started three of the last four games. While the stats didn’t look good Wednesday, Fleury was hardly the guy to blame for the latest loss. He made several huge saves, including back-to-back stops on Eetu Luostarinen and Anton Lundell early in the first period. Had he not robbed Evan Rodrigues on a wide-open backdoor look later that period, Minnesota would have been in an early 2-0 hole.
Fleury also stopped Tomas Nosek on a breakaway in the second period in a 2-1 game after a Chisholm turnover. The Panthers were allowed to get inside too often on Wednesday, with Matthew Tkachuk’s two goals coming right on the doorstep (one on the power play), and Barkov’s overturned goal from a similar spot.
But the Wild clearly miss Gustavsson, who has been one of the better goalies in the league this season, sparking the team’s impressive start.
1004th career start for 🌸
That’s third most in NHL history!!! pic.twitter.com/KNhbQgSswR
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) December 19, 2024
Quick hits
• Marco Rossi scored for the fifth time in his last seven games and is on pace for 31 goals and 64 points over an 82-game season.
• The Wild worked on their struggling penalty kill for a lot of Tuesday’s practice, but the Panthers’ power-play goal Wednesday hit some familiar themes. The Wild lost the defensive zone face-off, with Florida gaining a lengthy possession and then finishing.
• Brendan Gaunce made his Wild debut, playing on the fourth line with Marat Khusnutdinov and Devin Shore.
(Photo: Brad Rempel / Imagn Images)
