The Minnesota Wild hosted the New York Islanders on Saturday, Feb. 8, in their first season meetup on their Black History Month celebration night. The Wild’s roster was going to be the same as the game prior until, during warm-ups, it was announced that Joel Eriksson Ek was out with a lower-body injury. They didn’t have any extra forwards, so they played 11/7 with Filip Gustavsson back in the net.
The game started in favor of the Wild but the Islanders found a way to not only answer back but took the lead early in the second. Then, a power play redirection goal got the Wild going, and they stormed back to take the lead late in the period and carried it into the third. They added to it and took the win 6-3. In this article, we’ll look at how they did it, starting with how they scored their goals.
Wild Capitalize on Deflections & Tips
Just when the Wild looked out of the game as the Islanders took a 3-1 lead, the Wild deflected the puck into the back of the net off of an Islanders player, changing the whole momentum of the game. The Wild did have a specific energy for most of the night except when the Islanders scored their goals, but it came back with a vengeance after that goal. The Wild were still down, but they finally had something swing their way after having quite a few chances not go in.
Following that goal, the Wild had two goals go in off of tips, and then another deflected off an Islanders player. The Wild found the sweet spot to beat the goaltender, and that was tipping and deflecting right in front of the net. Typically, they haven’t been in front of the net a lot this season, but they figured it out against the Islanders, and it worked.
“Yeah there was a lot of that, that was something that we definitely had talked with the team about this morning and re-emphazied it again before the game. I thought the first we got there, but on the second we were there more, and we delivered pucks faster,” said head coach John Hynes about creating scoring chances in front of the net.
Wild’s Special Teams Strong
The Wild’s special teams stepped up big against the Islanders as their power play and penalty kill did well. They only had two chances on the power play and made the most of their second opportunity. That lone goal was enough to swing the game their way, and once they found their game again, they kept their foot on the gas.
As for their penalty kill, they took just two penalties…
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