ST. PAUL, Minn. — Playing in his 500th NHL game, the Minnesota Wild’s best center, Joel Eriksson Ek, was elbowed in the face in the second period of Saturday night’s game by Seattle Kraken defenseman Adam Larsson.
Eriksson Ek missed the final 12:45 of the period and emerged in the third period wearing a full face shield. He played one shift and left the game for good.
To add insult to injury, the referees missed the infraction, then eight seconds later called Jonas Brodin for a dubious tripping penalty that resulted in Jordan Eberle’s power-play goal to tie the game.
That triggered a back-and-forth, all-over-the-map game that saw the Wild blow a two-goal lead and a pair of one-goal leads en route to a 5-4 shootout loss.
Jared McCann ties it late!
Elite shot. Whistled it right past Fleury’s mask. pic.twitter.com/manJtx3Yj7
— Emerald City Hockey (@EmeraldCityHky) October 13, 2024
Mats Zuccarello opened the shootout scoring, but Marc-Andre Fleury gave up two goals to Oliver Bjorkstrand and Eberle — and Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy could not convert.
After Kaprizov and Tye Kartye each scored early in the third period, Ryan Hartman gave the Wild a 4-3 lead with 7:27 left after a backhanded no-look pass from Boldy. But on a delayed penalty, Jared McCann tied the score with 3:26 left when he ripped a one-timer past Fleury.
Kaprizov scored one goal and two assists, Zuccarello and Boldy scored a goal and assist each, Marco Rossi had two assists and Marcus Foligno had seven hits in his 800th career game.
The 39-year-old Fleury stopped 30 of 34 shots in his season debut.
WHAT. A. PASS.
Boldy to Hartman and the #mnwild are back in front! pic.twitter.com/zVWDrhjh1l
— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) October 13, 2024
Eriksson Ek’s injury comes at a bad time
It was the second game of the season last year when the Wild began to get inundated with injuries starting with Boldy and Freddy Gaudreau.
Now Eriksson Ek was lost in the second game of this season and not at a good time. The Wild open a seven-game road trip Sunday with a 5 p.m. faceoff in Winnipeg. If Eriksson Ek can’t play, the Wild would have rookie Liam Ohgren waiting in the wings to make his season debut.
But he’s a winger, so the Wild may have to consider flipping him for a center from Iowa or moving one of their wingers to center.
Ouch. https://t.co/ZfjRHUCJmu pic.twitter.com/SxK1RsQ5Cx
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) October 13, 2024
Marcus Johansson has played center in the past, but we’ll have to see how he feels when he wakes up Sunday. He, too, left Saturday’s game briefly when Eberle was checked into his right hip. Gaudreau can also slide into the middle.
Eriksson Ek, who scored his first goal of the season in Thursday’s opener, is the Wild’s first option to take a big faceoff, kill a penalty or play net-front on the power play.
Coach John Hynes up Eriksson Ek on Saturday morning, saying, “I knew how hard he was to play against just by coaching against him. But the other day I kind of had a comment where I think he’s a bit underrated. When you get a chance to see him every day, how much impact he has on the game, how hard he is to play against, the key situations that he plays in, and to me just even his offensive ability, I think you’re starting to see now he’s combining a really strong power forward, two-way game.
“He’s a hard player to find. You look around the league, (it’s hard) to find a player like him that can play as consistently as he does, as hard as he does, on both sides of the puck is impressive.”
Kaprizov, Zuccarello and Boldy are magic again
Two games into the season, Kaprizov, Zuccarello and Boldy have combined for 12 points. The Wild’s game-opening goal was simply beautiful when Kaprizov fed Zuccarello from behind the net right into the slot for a beautiful shot over Joey Daccord’s left shoulder.
Kaprizov and Zuccarello haven’t missed a beat 🔥 pic.twitter.com/JnkslU2evs
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) October 13, 2024
To open the second period on a power play, Kaprizov and Zuccarello huddled on the ice to set up a play. Boldy and Kaprizov just missed a connection, but Boldy scored his second goal of the second period 15 seconds later. Later in the third, Boldy hit Ryan Hartman with the beautiful no-look pass for the eventual winner.
The Kraken part the sea? Matt Boldy takes advantage. 2-0 #mnwild pic.twitter.com/2zLYJQ8jc2
— Bally Sports North (@BallySportsNOR) October 13, 2024
Navigating three goalies
With the Wild playing Sunday, 22 hours after the opening puck drop Saturday, Fleury got the start on Saturday with Filip Gustavsson likely to get the start behind a tired team Sunday against the Jets.
Rookie Jesper Wallstedt is slated to back up unless the Wild need to send him to Iowa to recall a forward. They could always send down Ohgren, too.
Navigating three goalies will be a challenge all season, which is why Hynes wouldn’t commit Saturday morning whether Wallstedt will make his season debut in St. Louis on Tuesday.
“Carrying the extra players, and probably, particularly two younger guys in Wallstedt and Ohgren, there’s an itch to see them play and I certainly respect that,” Hynes said. “But you also have to manage the team and guys that are here and different situations. So, we haven’t had a firm plan on either guy. They had good training camps. We like where they’re at. We think they can help the team, but it doesn’t just mean they would automatically play. We’re just trying to take it … day by day and keep those guys up and running and ready and see where our team goes, see how our team continues to play, and then make some decisions from there.”
(Photo of Adam Larsson protecting the puck against Joel Eriksson Ek: David Berding / Getty Images)
