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    Dylan Loucks
    Dylan Loucks
    Dec 7, 2025, 16:00
    Updated at: Dec 7, 2025, 16:00

    Jesper Wallstedt's historic road shutout streak ended, but his impressive run placed him in elite company among rookie netminders.

    We have been writing story after story on the rookie goaltender Jesper Wallstedt recently. On Saturday, Wallstedt started another game. 

    The Minnesota Wild (15-9-4) continued its road trip against the Vancouver Canucks (11-15-3) for a late one. It was Wallstedt vs the Canucks' rookie goaltender Nikita Tolopilo.

    Despite the run he was on, it was Tolopilo and the Canucks who put an end to Wallstedt's ridiculous streak.

    In the loss, the rookie netminder extended his road shutout sequence to 161:09, which marks the third longest in franchise history behind Devan Dubnyk (170:23 from Oct. 25 – Nov. 5, 2016) and Niklas Backstrom (164:19 from Dec. 20, 2008 – Jan. 8, 2009). Per NHLStats.

    He became the fifth rookie goaltender with a road shutout sequence of 161:09 or longer since 1929-30 (when forward passing was permitted inside all three zones). He joined Frank Brimsek (256:07 from Dec. 1-29, 1938), Jordan Binnington (227:17 from Feb. 5-21, 2019), Terry Sawchuk (192:36 from March 3-18, 1951) and Jimmy Howard (165:15 from March 20 – April 11, 2010). Per NHLStats.

    Wallstedt, 23, entered Saturday's game without a regulation loss. Now 8-1-2 this year, Wallstedt was not happy with his performance in the Wild's 4-2 loss.

    “I felt like I didn’t give us a good enough chance,” Wallstedt said.

    Despite allowing four goals on 20 shots, Wallstedt still leads the NHL in goals-against average (1.95), save percentage (.936) and shutouts (4).

    “I’ve got to fight through the screen a little better,” Wallstedt said postgame. “I thought I got stuck behind the screen a couple times and I couldn’t catch the release and that made it hard.”

    It was a rare night off for Wallstedt. But if the Wild continue the goalie rotation, he will get four days off before playing the Dallas Stars (19-5-5) on Thursday.

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