Wild @ Edmonton Oilers 5-2 - Tuesday, January 31, 2017
Darcy Kuemper made 41 saves and Tyler Graovac scored two goals for the Minnesota Wild in a 5-2 win against the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place. Jason Zucker, Zach Parise and Chris Stewart scored for Minnesota (33-11-5), which extended its winning streak to three. The Wild won for the fifth time in six games. Adam Larsson and Leon Draisaitl scored for Edmonton (28-16-8), who had a three-game winning streak and eight-game point streak end. Cam Talbot gave up four goals on 19 shots before being pulled at 12:44 of the second period after Minnesota's fourth goal. Laurent Brossoit gave up one goal on 16 shots. The 43 shots were the most Kuemper has faced this season. The win was his first since Jan. 14, 5-4 against the Dallas Stars. Graovac scored at 13:09 of the first period when he gathered a loose puck in front and slid it past Talbot.
Zucker scored with 3.6 seconds left to put Minnesota up 2-0. Parise scored at 4:15 of the second period, converting a pass in front from Jason Pominville.
Larsson scored on a point shot at 11:08. The puck deflected in front and skipped past Kuemper to make it 3-1. Graovac's second goal ended Talbot's night. He capitalized on a turnover deep in the Oilers zone to put Minnesota up 4-1. It was Graovac's first two-goal game in the NHL. Draisaitl scored on the power play at 16:47 when he converted a pass from Milan Lucic in the slot to make it 4-2.
Stewart made it 5-2 when he took a pass coming out of the penalty box, kept the puck on a 2-on-1 rush and shot through Brossoit's pads. Pominville had a goal waved off at 16:49 after he was ruled to have batted the puck in the net off a scramble in front.
* Mikael Granlund intercepted a pass in the Oilers' zone and set up Graovac at 12:44 of the second period.
* Wild forward Eric Staal checked Mark Letestu in the slot to break up an Oilers scoring opportunity on the power play at 3:14 of the third period.
* Stewart scored on a no-look shot at 4:36 of the third period.
"He [Kuemper] played great, I thought it was his best game of the year. He controlled rebounds. That's been sort of a little bit of a problem in the past when he's had a rough night, but tonight, he controlled them really well and caught pucks and settled things down for us when we needed them settled down." Bruce Boudreau said.
"It's been kind of funny because I've felt good, especially lately, and sometimes the result just hasn't been there. It was nice to feel good in there and keep the score down. I just have to keep working and the guys made it pretty easy on me tonight." Kuemper said.
"It feels good. Chipping in any way you can, whether it's a faceoff or being good defensively or giving momentum to the next line, that's our job as the fourth line. That just helps everybody." Graovac said.
Larsson scored on a point shot at 11:08. The puck deflected in front and skipped past Kuemper to make it 3-1. Graovac's second goal ended Talbot's night. He capitalized on a turnover deep in the Oilers zone to put Minnesota up 4-1. It was Graovac's first two-goal game in the NHL. Draisaitl scored on the power play at 16:47 when he converted a pass from Milan Lucic in the slot to make it 4-2.
Stewart made it 5-2 when he took a pass coming out of the penalty box, kept the puck on a 2-on-1 rush and shot through Brossoit's pads. Pominville had a goal waved off at 16:49 after he was ruled to have batted the puck in the net off a scramble in front.
* Mikael Granlund intercepted a pass in the Oilers' zone and set up Graovac at 12:44 of the second period.
* Kuemper made a save on a deflection in front by Drake Caggiula at 2:37 of the second period.
* Stewart scored on a no-look shot at 4:36 of the third period.
* Minnesota has not lost a road game in regulation since Nov. 29, 5-4 at the Vancouver Canucks … Oilers defenseman Kris Russell was minus-4. He was plus-4 going into the game … Kuemper got his first NHL assist.
Wild Quotes
"It's been kind of funny because I've felt good, especially lately, and sometimes the result just hasn't been there. It was nice to feel good in there and keep the score down. I just have to keep working and the guys made it pretty easy on me tonight." Kuemper said.
"It feels good. Chipping in any way you can, whether it's a faceoff or being good defensively or giving momentum to the next line, that's our job as the fourth line. That just helps everybody." Graovac said.
Wild @ Calgary Flames 1-5 - Wednesday, February 01, 2017
The Calgary Flames ended the Minnesota Wild's record 14-game road point streak with a 5-1 victory at Scotiabank Saddledome. Sean Monahan scored two goals and Brian Elliott made 28 saves for the Flames (26-24-3), who have won two in a row to follow a four-game losing streak. Deryk Engelland had a goal and an assist, and Alex Chiasson and Micheal Ferland also scored for the Flames. Monahan has eight goals in the past nine games after not scoring in 11 straight. Jason Zucker scored, and Devan Dubnyk made 31 saves for the Wild (33-12-5). Minnesota had gone 14 consecutive road games (12-0-2) without a regulation loss for the first time in history. The streak began Dec. 2. Minnesota is 9-3-0 in the past 12 games, including a 5-2 win at the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday. Calgary scored 4:26 into the game when Sam Bennett's one-timer deflected off Chiasson. Monahan scored on the power play at 8:09 to make it 2-0. Zucker cut the lead to 2-1 at 12:40 of the second period with his second goal in as many games. Monahan scored again on the power play 6:19 into the third period to give the Flames a 3-1 lead when he shot through Troy Brouwer's screen and by Dubnyk. Engelland scored his first goal in 45 games 1:13 later, and Ferland made it 5-1 at 13:47.
* Dubnyk made the initial save on Johnny Gaudreau's redirect of Brouwer's initial slap-pass, but Monahan scored on the rebound.
* Elliott made a pad save on Parise's chance on the doorstep at 11:37 of the second period with the Wild shorthanded. Eric Staal followed up and scored on the rebound, but the goal was disallowed because Parise made incidental contact with Elliott before the puck crossed the goal line.
* Flames defenseman Mark Giordano blocked Jared Spurgeon's shot with 3:03 to play in the first period. Giordano went to the locker room but returned to start the second period and blocked Granlund's shot at 1:43.
* Monahan, who has 18 goals, had his first multigoal game of the season and first since March 20, 2016 against the Montreal Canadiens. … Granlund assisted on Zucker's goal to extend his point streak to 11 games (two goals, 11 assists). … Flames defenseman Jyrki Jokipakka played in place of Brett Kulak, who missed the game because of illness.
Wild Quotes
"It's a long season. It's not going to be perfect all the time. All we've got to do is understand why that game was 5-1 and get back to playing how we want to." "We put ourselves in a position to come back in the third period and that's certainly not how we've been playing third periods when it's a one-goal hockey game. That's not going to get it done." Dubnyk said."We followed up with a few good shifts right after [the goal]. I think in here we thought, 'Hey, we're going to turn it around,' and it didn't happen." Zach Parise said.
"Back-to-back off a break, it's not easy because you don't really practice that hard the day before. It sounds like an excuse, but our guys were tired. We played nine games in 15 days. We get a break and then you come back and play back-to-back. I think we'll be much better in Vancouver [on Saturday]." Bruce Boudreau
Wild @ Vancouver Canucks 6-3 - Saturday, February 04, 2017
Mikael Granlund got his first NHL hat trick to help the Minnesota Wild to a 6-3 win against the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena. Granlund, who had an assist, has five goals and 12 assists during a 12-game point streak, the longest in the NHL this season and in Wild history. Granlund reached NHL career highs of 15 goals and 48 points. Zach Parise, Mikko Koivu and Mike Reilly scored, and Devan Dubnyk made 24 saves to help the Western Conference-leading Wild (34-12-5) bounce back from a 5-1 loss at the Calgary Flames on Wednesday.
Minnesota hasn't lost consecutive games since Dec. 2 and has lost two in a row in regulation once all season. Brandon Sutter scored twice, Bo Horvat had a goal, and Ryan Miller made 33 saves for the Canucks (23-23-6), who have lost three straight games. Reilly scored his first goal of the season to make it 1-0 at 13:01 of the first period. Sutter tied it 1-1 with 2:08 left in the first, but Granlund scored on a rebound with 25 seconds remaining and made it 3-1 on a shorthanded goal 4:06 into the second period. Horvat scored on a 2-on-1 at 8:36 of the second to make it 3-2, but Parise scored on a deflection 54 seconds later to make it 4-2, and Koivu scored after a pass from Granlund with 1:41 left to put the Wild up 5-2. Sutter batted a puck out of the air on a power play 58 seconds later to make it 5-3, but Granlund swiped a loose puck past Miller at 10:19 of the third period.
* Granlund won a battle for a loose puck in his end while killing a penalty and led a 2-on-1, keeping the puck and beating Miller with a wrist shot from the top left hash mark.
"I don't remember the last time I shot on a 2-on-1, so I guess it was time to try that," Granlund said.
"[Granlund's] a pretty special player. I know he was a good player in the past but his numbers weren't quite what they are now. He can make plays. He skates, he defends. I can't say enough about him." Bruce Boudreau said.
"A hat trick really doesn't happen too often. I don't even remember if I've ever done that, so obviously it's fun, but I'm even more glad we got the win." said Granlund.
Granlund passed Chicago Blackhawks forward Artem Anisimov for the longest point streak in the NHL this season. Anisimov had eight goals and nine assists during his 11-game streak Oct. 15-Nov. 6. Granlund's streak started Jan. 12. … Wild forward Alex Tuch made his NHL debut on a line with center Eric Staal and left wing Parise. Tuch played 14:39 and had two shots. … Canucks right wing Jannik Hansen had an assist playing 16:26 in his first game after missing 17 with a sprained knee.
* Granlund won a battle for a loose puck in his end while killing a penalty and led a 2-on-1, keeping the puck and beating Miller with a wrist shot from the top left hash mark.
"I don't remember the last time I shot on a 2-on-1, so I guess it was time to try that," Granlund said.
* Miller slid right to left to get his arm on Zucker's one-timer after a cross-ice power-play pass 1:30 into the second period, then scrambled back to knock away the loose puck behind him.
* Minnesota defenseman Jared Spurgeon kept a bouncing puck in at the blue line to set up Parise's goal, and then got his second assist on Koivu's goal, finishing plus-2 in 26:38.
* Granlund's assist came on a 3-on-2. He cut back into the middle to draw Miller out of his crease before passing to give Koivu an empty net from just above the goal line.
"A hat trick really doesn't happen too often. I don't even remember if I've ever done that, so obviously it's fun, but I'm even more glad we got the win." said Granlund.
"Obviously [Mikael] is known much more as a passer than he is a shooter, but he made a lot of great plays. It actually might be the first time I've seen him smile all year."
"That's where you want it to be. Once you start letting it hit two and three, then all of a sudden it turns into six and seven and it's hard to get out of that sometimes." said Jason Zucker.
"That's where you want it to be. Once you start letting it hit two and three, then all of a sudden it turns into six and seven and it's hard to get out of that sometimes." said Jason Zucker.
Granlund passed Chicago Blackhawks forward Artem Anisimov for the longest point streak in the NHL this season. Anisimov had eight goals and nine assists during his 11-game streak Oct. 15-Nov. 6. Granlund's streak started Jan. 12. … Wild forward Alex Tuch made his NHL debut on a line with center Eric Staal and left wing Parise. Tuch played 14:39 and had two shots. … Canucks right wing Jannik Hansen had an assist playing 16:26 in his first game after missing 17 with a sprained knee.
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