The Wild's strong first period helped set up the rest of the game as Minnesota rattled off their third straight win to creep back into the playoff picture.
ST. PAUL - The Wild are back to .500 after their latest 5-3 win over the Washington Capitals on home ice. They now slowly are creeping back into the playoff picture in the West after a huge game by both Joel Eriksson Ek and Brock Faber.
“I think right now, we’re just trying to take it in segments and focus on these three homestands," Marcus Foligno said on getting back into the playoff picture. "I think that’s really what it is. We do a little bit in, like, 10-game increments and try to win the 10-game sets, like 7 out of 10, or above .500. But we obviously we know we need to lean toward 7 of 10 and records like that going forward here, and even more, right? We need to get on a run. We need to put a winning streak together — and now we’ve got three."
After their win, the Wild now sit 21-21-5 and are just four points out of a playoff spot behind the Nashville Predators, who they play on home ice on Thursday.
“So, a really big, important game Thursday. We know what’s at stake," Foligno said. "We’ve got to put ourselves back in position where we come back from the break refreshed and there’s no excuses — we’ve put ourselves in a good spot, three, four points back, and we can go. So, that’s the focus going into the break.”
After a great road trip that included two big wins over the Florida Panthers and the Carolina Hurricanes, the Wild seemed to continue their momentum with another big win over the Capitals tonight.
"Yeah, I really liked the mindset that we came home with coming off the road and the style of game that we need to be able to play," Wild head coach John Hynes said. "Just the consistency of it was important for us to be able to get to that game tonight, and I thought we did a pretty good job of it."
It started with a goal from none other than Brock Faber who has been taking the league by storm recently. It was Faber's fourth goal of the season but his second goal and eighth point in his last five games played.
With Connor Bedard out long-term with an upper-body injury, one would start to think that Faber leads as the Calder favorite.
Faber, 21, is tied for second in points by all NHL rookies with 28 but is first in assists with 24. The guy he is tied with is fellow teammate Marco Rossi.
"Yeah, certainly is," Hynes said on seeing some Faber recognition by the NHL. "I’d say defenseman as a young guy in the NHL is a really hard position to play. And not only is it a hard position to play, but with the injuries, he’s been put in situations where he’s got to be a top pair D and play those minutes, and play that type of competition. His effectiveness, his consistency level has been really impressive as it goes on. So I think the way that he’s played and the situations he’s played in, he’s certainly deserving of that type of talk."
"For how young he is, and I know the whole youth thing is getting old now, so many of these young guys are insane when they come into this league now, but the game management he has is something you see out of a veteran," Foligno said on Faber. "Just his athletic stature. I mean, that guy’s built like a linebacker, so, it’s insane. It’s awesome to have him.
“First of all, off the ice, unbelievable guy, really cares about everyone in here, and now to see what he does on the ice, he’s a leader in my mind — definitely a future leader of this team — and we want him to get that Calder Trophy, and if not the Norris."
Not long after Faber's goal, Foligno got one of his own and away the Wild went. Marcus Johansson, the former Capitals forward, picked up his first of two goals later in the second period after flying into the offensive zone and ripping a shot past Darcy Kuemper, the former Wild goaltender, giving the Wild a 3-0 lead.
Anthony Mantha was able to cut the Wild's lead to 3-1 after receiving an incredible pass from Evgeny Kuznetsov. But Joel Eriksson Ek quickly got that goal back with an early goal in the third period. Johansson followed it up with another about ten minutes later. The Capitals were able to score a power-play goal by T.J. Oshie with about three minutes left and another goal by Mantha with under two minutes left.
But Filip Gustavsson and the Wild were able to close out the game with a 5-3 win. Gustavsson finished with 30 saves on the 33 shots he faced and is now 3-0-0 in his last three games with a .919 save percentage.
For Eriksson Ek, it is his third straight 20-goal season in the middle of the best start to a season in his career. Since January 15th, Eriksson is tied for first in goals with five and is first in points with ten in just five games.
The 6-foot-3 forward is currently on pace for over 34 goals and about 66 points if he continues this pace.
"I mean, he’s a menace to play against. He’s just a big strong guy, who plays in the hard areas. But it's like, when you look at him, there’s a lot of games here, you know guys that are kind of fed up with him and giving him shots behind the play because he’s so hard to play against," Hynes said on Eriksson Ek. "But his net-front presence, his willingness to go there, not only his willingness to go there, his effectiveness has been really impressive."
Foligno has played with Eriksson Ek for a while now and was a part of one of the most dominant defensive lines a couple of years back with Ek and Jordan Greenway. Now Foligno is back with Eriksson Ek but this time it is with Matt Boldy on their right side as they hope to keep their momentum going as a line. All three of them played lights out tonight.
“Three years now, in a row? Yeah, he’s a beast. He’s been so good, 5 on 5, power play, penalty kill — he does it all," Foligno said on Eriksson Ek reaching another 20-goal season. "He’s one of our best, if not our best, players every night and he leads by example. It’s fun to be reunited with him and have a spark again with him. We want to keep it going.”