Matt Boldy and Filip Gustavsson have really stepped up for the Wild recently and tonight was more of the same.
Matt Boldy and Filip Gustavsson have really stepped up for the Wild recently and tonight was more of the same.
ST. PAUL - It is crazy what confidence can do for someone. Not having any can weigh on you like a ton of bricks which is exactly how it felt for Matt Boldy just over three weeks ago when he was in the middle of a ten-game goal drought.
But when John Hynes took over as head coach of the Minnesota Wild, Boldy took off. It's not like Dean Evason was holding Boldy back or anything but sometimes when you change the coach mid-season many of the players feel guilty and believe it was on them that the coach got fired.
Since the change, Boldy has looked like a brand-new player. He looks a step ahead from last year's insane stretch when he scored 15 goals in 20 games. After tonight's game, Boldy has now scored in three straight games and has seven goals in his last eight games after going ten straight without a goal.
"It's nice. Matty is such a talented player. It’s nice to see him get rewarded for the way he’s played," Hynes said on Boldy. "When a young player like him can produce at the level he’s produced at the last seven games, it is certainly driving his confidence. But it’s not like he’s getting the chances on a whim. He’s played a really solid, 200-foot game. When he’s getting in offensive situations, he’s certainly capitalizing."
So has Filip Gustavsson who stopped 35 shots in the Wild's 3-2 shootout win over the Calgary Flames. It was Gustavsson's fifth win in his last six games. The 25-year-old goaltender looks a lot more comfortable than he did at the start of the season and it's translating with wins.
The Wild are now 6-2-0 under John Hynes and it seems like every win is coming because of a Boldy goal and a great game by Gustavsson.
"That’s how you can win regularly. We talk a lot about being consistent and reliable," Hynes said on having the same recipe night in and night out with Gustavsson and Boldy. "That’s in individual games and that’s in your team game. We’ve been able to manufacture that and build some of that identity and mindset into the group."
Boldy scored the game's first goal just under five minutes into the first period after a great board battle from Joel Eriksson Ek. Boldy then picked up the loose puck, skated to the slot, and ripped one past Dan Vladar's left shoulder.
"I don’t even really remember how the play started. I just remember a great play by Ekky in a good spot jumping down, kind of hitting him I think and it landed on my stick so I just kind of tried to get on that quick," Boldy said on his goal.
Boldy continued: "Yeah, you get those turnovers and you get unorganized defensemen and stuff like that so guys are out of place, maybe jumping a little bit more, panicking, taking back doors. So get a little bit more time, so just gotta keep that up."
The Flames answered back in the second period with a power-play goal from Yegor Sharangovich after a great pass from Elias Lindholm and later picked up a shorthanded goal by Blake Coleman in the third period to take a 2-1 lead.
But it was Marco Rossi who scored just 45 seconds later to tie it.
"That was a big one. We talked between the second and third about mindset and focus," Hynes said. "Really the challenge in between the second and third, nothing is going to shake our confidence. We got to make sure we got to refocus. And it’s a 1-1 game going into the third period. These are the games you have to find a way to win. We didn’t find a way to win in Edmonton. Tonight we did a better job of sticking with it and finding a way to win the game."
That was Rossi's tenth goal of the year which puts him two goals away from Connor Bedard for the rookie scoring race.
"I mean, it was really important you know," Rossi said on scoring 45 seconds after the Flames goal. "When they score it's almost like their momentum came. But it was important to score that goal so they don't get the momentum back."
The game stayed tied throughout the rest of the game and eventually overtime which led to a shootout. Boldy ended up scoring the shootout-winning goal and Gustavsson followed that up with a big save on Nazem Kadri to seal the victory.
The Wild entered tonight's game without two elite defensemen. They needed Brock Faber and Jake Middleton to step up and boy did they ever.
Faber started the overtime on the ice, later went off for Middleton to replace him, then came back onto the ice and nearly played four of the five minutes of overtime for the Wild.
"Brock is really playing great. You see it today. His game in general is good. But what typifies him to me is that 3-on-3 shift when he’s totally exhausted," Hynes said.
"He’s behind the net, he’s in a puck battle and the puck is there. Not only is it a second effort, he’s got the wherewithal to bump it back so we can gain possession of the puck and get a line change. You look at that one little component. We’ve been talking about not just his talent, but his mindset and mental maturity to handle the minutes he has and situations he’s in."
The 21-year-old rookie defenseman quarterbacked the Wild's top power play and played in a career-high 30 minutes and eight seconds which was the fifth-highest time on ice by a rookie in team history.
With the way Faber has been playing, you would think he is a 33-year-old veteran who has played almost 1,000 games in the league yet he has only played 29 regular season games and gets better every single game.
Tonight, the Wild got great goaltending from Gustavsson, more of the same from Faber, and a clutch goal from Boldy in the first period and in the shootout to win their sixth game in their last eight under Hynes.