The Minnesota Wild can enter the Olympic break on a five-game heater, but first they must defeat the Predators in Nashville on Wednesday night.
This will be the third game of the season between these Central Division rivals. The two previous games were determined in overtime, but Minnesota should be surging with confidence after winning four straight.
On Monday, the Wild coughed up a 2-0 lead against the Montreal Canadiens to find themselves in a 3-2 third-period hole. Brock Faber tied the game up 3-3 before regulation expired, and Kirill Kaprizov scored a game-winning power-play goal with 1:22 left in overtime.
“We didn’t get deterred,” Wild head coach John Hynes said. “It was good to see the response after we had a little adversity, where we had a couple of letdowns to end the second (period). The third (goal) in the beginning, I thought it was a fluky goal. I know it was tipped out in front, but I really liked our response.”
Kaprizov scored twice on Monday night, while Quinn Hughes added three assists to extend his personal point streak to nine games (two goals, 14 assists) and reach 400 assists in his NHL career.
“When you’ve got two superstars like that passing each other the puck, they just play at a different level,” Faber said of Kaprizov and Hughes. “They think at a different level. You know, there’s a reason they’ve clicked so much. They’re kind of on the same wavelength.”
The Predators have also been in some close games, including two straight one-goal victories ahead of Wednesday’s matchup. Following a 4-3 result at the New York Islanders over the weekend, they earned a rowdy 6-5 win against the St. Louis Blues on Monday.
In that game, the Predators found themselves in a 5-1 hole halfway through the second frame and had to rally for two goals before the intermission. Ryan O’Reilly got an early third-period goal to close the gap to 5-4, and Steven Stamkos scored twice to secure the Predators’ come-from-behind victory.
Justus Annunen made 13 saves on as many shots in relief of Juuse Saros, who surrendered all five of St. Louis’ goals.
“It was one of those games where everything is going the wrong way, but that’s why sports are so amazing, because you never know what is going to happen,” Stamkos said. “You either pack it in as a group, or you say ‘Screw it’ and go out there and try to make a difference. The guys made a difference (Monday), and it wasn’t the same guys all night. It was different guys.”
Predators coach Andrew Brunette added, “There are certain guys who get going, and they’re grabbing momentum for our group, and you can tell it’s on its way. You just kind of keep riding (the momentum) a little bit. I think we taxed a lot of guys (Monday), but these are crucial points. This is a crucial week for us.”
The Wild beat the Predators on Nov. 4 when Marcus Johansson scored the overtime winner. Nashville exacted some revenge Dec. 23, with Stamkos scoring less than a minute into overtime.
–Field Level Media
