The Minnesota Wild (19-21-5) allowed four even-strength goals and were outshot 35-25, but their power play surged and scored a franchise-record-tying five times en route to a 6-4 win over the Florida Panthers (27-14-4) inside Amerant Bank Arena on Friday night.
Special teams once again was the story, but this time in the Wild's favor. Their penalty kill failed to execute and costed them in a 7-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday night by allowing three power play goals. Not to mention the Wild went 0-for-2 with just two shots on the man advantage in what marked their ninth loss in the past 11 games.
But on Friday night, the script flipped as the Wild's special teams came in clutch in a game where they didn't generate a lot of offense at five-on-five with just eight total shots to show for. The Wild went 5-for-6 on the power play with 15 shots against a Panthers penalty kill that entered the game ranked No. 5 at 84.4 percent. Not only that, the Wild finished the night a perfect 4-for-4 on the penalty kill with just five shots allowed.
The five power play goals marked a season high (scored three against the Montreal Canadiens on Oct. 17), tied the franchise record and is the most the Wild have scored since tallying four on April 7, 2021 against the Colorado Avalanche.
Ryan Hartman scored twice and drew two penalties that led to goals, Kirill Kaprizov had his second two-goal game of the season and recorded three points and Brock Faber scored a goal and notched two assists and is now tied for third among NHL rookies with 25 points. Both Mats Zuccarello (a goal and assist) and Joel Eriksson Ek (two assists) had two-point nights.
Aaron Ekblad tied the game at one apiece 35 seconds into the second after the Wild went into the first intermission with a 1-0 lead thanks to Kaprizov’s goal 2:49 into the contest. Then power play goals from Hartman, Faber and Zuccarello gave the Wild a 4-1 lead.
Eetu Luostarinen gave the Panthers some life heading into the third when he scored with 1:33 left in the second to make it a two-goal game. Kaprizov scored 41 seconds into the third to reclaim the Wild's three-goal lead. But it was all Panthers after that as Anton Lundell and Gustav Forsling scored 18 seconds apart. Florida recorded nine shots in the final four minutes, but it couldn't find the back of the net before Hartman scored an empty netter for insurance.
The Wild didn’t start the road trip how they wanted to, but they rebounded and executed on the power play against a Panthers team who entered the game 9-1-2 in their past 12 games.
This is an important bounce back win for the Wild, who still sit 27th in the league and seven points behind the L.A. Kings in the second wild-card spot even after Friday's victory.
The Wild have a long ways to go, but they're seeing some progress.
Marc-Andre Fleury made 10 saves on 11 shots before exiting the game with an upper-body injury, and Filip Gustavsson saved 25-of-28 in relief as Fleury, nor Connor Dewar who left with a lower-body injury after a hit, returned in the game. There were no updates postgame.
The Wild aim to build on the win when they conclude their trip against the Carolina Hurricanes on Sunday.