The Minnesota Wild hosted the Carolina Hurricanes in the final game of their most recent five-game homestand on Wednesday evening, November 19. Both teams posted wins, the Wild over the Vegas Golden Knights on Sunday, November 16, and the Hurricanes defeated the Boston Bruins 3-1 on Monday, November 17.
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The Wild’s injured list grew again when they added Ryan Hartman to injured reserve ahead of their matchup against the Hurricanes. The injury list also included Marco Rossi, Zach Bogosian and Nico Sturm, but both Bogosian and Sturm are close to returning to the lineup. The Hurricanes were without Jalen Chatfield, who was injured the last time they faced the Wild, as well as Juha Jaaska, Charles Alexis Legault, Jaccob Slavin and Jesperi Kotkaniemi.
The goaltending battle took place between Jesper Wallstedt for the Wild and Frederik Andersen for the Hurricanes. The game started in favor of the Wild, the Hurricanes pushed back, but the Wild took the win in a gunfight. This moved the Wild’s record to 10-7-4 and the Hurricanes to 13-5-2.
Summary of the game
The Wild got things going early in the opening period on a goal from Brock Faber. He was assisted by Mats Zuccarello and Danila Yurov to make it 1–0. The Wild extended their lead later in the period with a shorthanded goal from Matt Boldy, and he had no help. Those were the only goals of the period, and the Wild took the 2-0 lead in the second.
The Hurricanes got on the scoreboard later in the second period with a goal from Jackson Blake that ended Wallstedt’s shutout streak at 175:12. He was assisted by Sean Walker and Logan Stankoven. That was the only goal of the middle period and the Wild took the 2-1 lead into the final period.
The Wild scored 15 seconds into the third period with a breakaway goal by Zuccarello, his first of the season. He was assisted by Kirill Kaprizov and Yurov to make it 3–1. The Hurricanes responded with a goal from Sebastian Aho. He was assisted by Andrei Svechnikov and Seth Jarvis to make it 3–2. Blake scored his second of the night for the Hurricanes with 1:05 left in the third, making it 3-3. He was assisted by Nikolaj Ehlers and Shayne Gostisbehere.
The match remained tied and extra time was needed; however, no one scored and a shootout was necessary. Only one goal was scored in the shootout and it was Boldy who gave the Wild the 4-3 victory, while Wallstedt finished the match with 42 saves.
After a long homestand, the Wild will hit the road to take on the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday, November 21st. The Hurricanes will remain on the road as they head north to also face the Winnipeg Jets on Friday.
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