Once Upon A Time In Las Vegas – Divisional Round
It’s an interconference clash on the ice when a pair of teams on opposite sides of the playoff cut line collide in the Sunshine State. The Minnesota Wild are on the road as they make the trip to take on the Florida Panthers Saturday night. Minnesota comes in off a 5-2 road loss to Carolina in their previous contest Thursday night. Florida steamrolled past Montreal 6-2 on the road Thursday night in their latest game. In the last 10 meetings between the teams, the teams have each recorded five wins with Florida winning three straight. That includes a 6-2 road win in the most recent matchup on February 18, 2022.
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Minnesota saw their three-game win streak snapped with an emphatic drubbing on the road by the Hurricanes Thursday night. The Wild enter this game 25-15-4 on the season and stand third in the Central Division, seven points behind the Stars for the top spot. They were five points ahead of the Avalanche and Blues to remain in the final guaranteed playoff spot in the division. Minnesota is tied for 17th in goals per game as they average 3.11 goals per contest. The Wild are 11th in goals against as they allow 2.80 goals per contest this season. Minnesota is tied for 14th in power play success by converting 22.9% of their chances with the man advantage. The Wild are 15th in penalty killing as they successfully navigate 79.5% of their shorthanded situations this season.
Against the Hurricanes, Minnesota was unable to maintain their defensive zone play and that p roved to be their undoing. The opening period saw the Wild outshot by an 11-6 margin with neither team denting the twine, keeping things scoreless after 20 minutes of play. In the second period, Minnesota held a 15-7 edge in shots on goal only to be outscored 3-1 to trail by that margin after 40 minutes of play. The Wild opened the scoring with Kirill Kaprizov tallying his 26th goal of the season, on the power play, at 7:11 with assists going to Mats Zuccarello and Joel Eriksson Ek. That was the high point for Minnesota as they gave up three unanswered goals to trail at the second intermission. In the third period, the Wild was outshot 11-10 and outscored 2-1 to wind up with the loss. Minnesota gave up the first two goals of the period to trail 5-1 before Matt Boldy closed the scoring with his 13th goal of the year at 7:21 off assists from Ryan Hartman and Jonas Brodin. Marc-Andre Fleury made 24 saves for the Wild, who held a 31-29 edge in shots on goal, in the loss. Filip Gustavsson is slated to get the start in net for this one.