*Photo from AP News*
Sometimes, big risks have big rewards. Joel Eriksson Ek had two assists, Matt Boldy had a 3 point game, and the Minnesota Wild defeated the Nashville Predators in overtime with a 4-3 win on Sunday in Saint Paul.
This was no ordinary overtime win for the Wild. In OT, head coach John Hynes made the move to pull goalie Marc-Andre Fleury for an extra skater. By doing so, the Wild risked the one point they gained by the game going to overtime. If the Predators had scored with Fleury out of the net, the Wild would have gotten zero points instead of one. The gamble paid off for the Wild thanks to Boldy's goal.
Hynes said of his decision that "It's not something that you do all the time, but I think in our position, we want to be aggressive, we want to get two points, we want to continue to fight. We believe in our group and continue to fight to play meaningful games down the stretch and let the chips fall where they may. So, I think in the situation we're in, one point, no point, it's not going to do us any good. We got to get two points."
Jonas Brodin started the scoring in the first period for the Wild, giving them a 1-0 lead 3:16 into the game on his 7th goal of the season. Mark Jankowski, fresh off signing a contract extension, scored for the Predators later in the period to tie the game 1-1.
Early in the second period, the Predators took a 2-1 lead thanks to Luke Evangelista, who scored 3:36 into the period with assists from Jankowski and Tommy Novak on his 14th goal of the season. With 1:18 left in the second, Kirill Kaprizov tied the game for the Wild with a power play goal, assisted by Eriksson Ek and Boldy.
Ryan Hartman scored 12:28 into the 3rd period for the Wild, putting them back in front by a 3-2 score on his 16th goal of the season. With 2:02 left in regulation, Ryan O'Reilly forced overtime for the Predators on his 24th goal of the season, coming on the power play. Boldy scored the winning goal for the Wild with 1:10 left in overtime.
Boldy said after the game that "We need those points. Huge to get the win. I don't think it was our best or our worst, but a lot of guys stepped up and played hard. They're hard to play against, strong, physical, and forecheck really hard. So, to be able to get those points is huge."
It was Fleury who was the goalie for the Wild in this game, getting credit for the win to improve to 14-11-3 through 27 starts. Fleury stopped 27 of the 30 shots he faced from the Predators, good for an even .900 save percentage.
Getting the start in goal for the Predators was Juuse Saros, who saw his record drop to 27-21-4 in 52 starts as a result of the loss. Saros turned aside 29 out of the 33 shots on goal the Wild sent his way, recording a .879 save percentage.
O'Reilly said of the loss that "We were right there, we battled back. We were doing good things, we had some good chances, too. Fleury made some unbelievable saves when we had open nets. Juuse came up big for us, too. Like you said, it was a back-and-forth game. It was there for us and a chance. Disappointing we didn’t get the two."
The Wild remain at home as they welcome the Arizona Coyotes to town on Tuesday, with Filip Gustavsson set to start. The Predators travel to face the Winnipeg Jets on Wednesday, with Saros the expected starter.
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