3 takeaways from the Wild’s 3-2 overtime win over the Golden Knights – The Hockey Writers –

The Minnesota Wild ends their latest back-to-back homestand against the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday night, November 16, which also serves as the Minnesota Wild’s Hockey Against Cancer Night. Both teams were dealing with injuries and both had come off wins the night before. Filip Gustafsson is back in the net and the rest of the lineup remains the same.

The game started with the Wild dominant, but the Golden Knights fought back twice to send the game into overtime. The Golden Knights controlled much of the overtime period, which was a change for a Wild team accustomed to running the ball. However, a late penalty gave the Wild the chance they needed to clinch victory on a goal from their star Kirill Kaprizov. In this article, we’ll take a look at some key points from the game, starting with their special teams.

Wilderness Force Coaster

While the Wild’s penalty kill struggled initially, it didn’t rebound until facing the Golden Knights. While they did give up a power-play goal against the San Jose Sharks, they were solid against the Anaheim Ducks. Then, when they took the lead against the Golden Knights, not once but twice, the Wild’s penalty kill struggled. The Golden Knights scored twice on the power play to get back into the game.

The penalty kill had been excellent for five straight games before the game against the Sharks, and against the Ducks the penalty kill was perfect again. However, their loss against the Golden Knights cost them. They did win, but they also gave up a point that might be valuable later. They must resolve the penalty shootout before the next game or it will cause more problems.

It was quiet throughout the game, and on and off for a while, until they got their breakthrough against the Golden Knights. Hopefully this will spark their power play to get going again, even if it’s a four-on-three situation that doesn’t happen often.

Be yourself wildly

During the first half of the season, the Wild seemed to lose their way and struggled to find their game. In recent games, the Wild team that everyone has been looking forward to seeing has finally begun to appear. Against the Golden Knights, with the exception of one or two games so far, they have looked more united than they have all season. They’re more physical, but that doesn’t hinder their game; it does help.

They are also more proactive and no longer sit back and wait as they did in the past. They still make some of the same mistakes and some lapses in judgment, but are much better now than they were before and continue to improve every game. The Golden Knights were playing tough, but the Wild were ready and this time had the upper hand.

“I think we’re getting through it, and honestly, I think we can do better. Sometimes we find October hockey comes back and we have to get out of it, so but, yeah, it’s a lot better than what we saw in the first 12 games,” Marcus Foligno said of how they’re trying to get out of the way they played in October.

Wilder’s Gustafsson is enough

Jesper Wohlstetter’s game is definitely a step forward this season as he was recently shut out in two consecutive games during his rookie season and the Wild will need a similar performance from Filip Gustafsson against the Golden Knights. He’s had some strong saves and some not-so-good saves, but he hasn’t quite reached the level of performance that everyone was used to seeing last season, and while he came close against the Golden Knights, it still wasn’t enough.

He made the necessary save, but the opponent’s first goal came from a rebound that bounced to the waiting player. His defense should be covering that player, but they could also use that big save, but the way he made that first save, it’s hard not to rebound it. The second goal was a little harder to stop because he couldn’t see it.

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“Well, people around you always say there’s a light in the tunnel and you yourself just want to stay in there and try to get over it, but on this team we know what we can do and it’s frustrating that we can’t get it done faster and now I just say it feels like we’re playing a completely different defensive game and we’re still scoring the same number of goals as we were before and now we’re just locking in defensively,” Gustafsson said of getting out of trouble.

It was far from a perfect game for the Wild, but they came away with the win again, even in overtime; they got the extra points. They’ve seen what it takes to beat a tough team, and they’ve found more tricks of the trade themselves. Hopefully their game will continue to improve like it has with every past game and they will get more wins.