CHICAGO — Despite the Minnesota Wild’s 12-game winning streak against the Chicago Blackhawks and each team’s place in the Central Division standings, Sunday night’s game was highly predictable.
After playing back-to-back games in California with puck drops 23 1/2 hours apart and an airport curfew at John Wayne Airport that meant the Wild had to land at LAX and bus south for a wee-hours arrival in Anaheim, the Wild left Southern California at 11 a.m. CT Saturday and didn’t arrive at their Chicago hotel until 6 p.m. CT for an earlier-than-normal 6 p.m. game 24 hours later.
“The travel day wasn’t the best yesterday,” Chicago native Ryan Hartman said, chuckling, after the Wild’s 2-1 overtime loss at the United Center. “It’s just weird leaving in the morning and getting somewhere at night.”
Not shockingly, the Wild had trouble finding their game in the first two periods against a hardworking Blackhawks team that checked and defended hard. The Wild looked disjointed, disconnected and lethargic.
“I think you could see it,” defenseman Jake Middleton said. “I f—ing felt it. I didn’t have a game today, by any means. And fortunately, we had a goalie (Filip Gustavsson) who stood on his head, and (Matt Boldy) made a big-time goal to get us a point at the end of the game.”
Sure, the Wild would have loved 2, but for a team that couldn’t muster much energy in the first two periods, they’ll gladly take 5 of 6 points on the road and return home with a 10-2-3 record and 7-1-2 road mark thanks to a tremendous third period that gave them a shot at stealing an undeserved victory.
Despite that fatigue, the Wild emptied the gas tank in the final 20 minutes, outshooting the Blackhawks 19-4 and getting the tying goal with 4:31 left in regulation from the red-hot Boldy, the right winger who was thrown onto the ice as the center between Kirill Kaprizov and Mats Zuccarello because coach John Hynes just had that gut feeling Boldy was playing with enough chutzpah to deliver yet another clutch goal amid a run of them.
“Boldy was going. Kirill and Zuc were away from each other for a little bit, and then they’re back together,” Hynes said. “I thought Boldy had some jam in the third period, and sometimes you just get a feel of different guys, and they were good.”
Matt Boldy finds the back of the net to tie the game at one! 🚨 pic.twitter.com/ddoQq5HVZz
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) November 11, 2024
With nothing going on in the middle of the second period, Hynes began juggling lines like he was a circus performer. Other than the fourth line of Jakub Lauko, Marat Khusnutdinov and Yakov Trenin, who were putting together consistently good shifts and drew a big penalty in the third period, everybody seemed to play with everybody.
The Wild got their legs under them in the last few shifts of the second period and could have easily tied the score. Hynes then opened the third with a tone-setting reunion of last season’s dominant Kaprizov–Joel Eriksson Ek–Boldy line. Marcus Johansson skated with Freddy Gaudreau and Zuccarello, and Marco Rossi centered Marcus Foligno and Hartman.
Finally, the Wild sustained pressure, shift after shift, with Rossi’s line in particular generating chances persistently.
Hartman said it gave the bench “juice.”
“You just give different combos, different feels, and sometimes as a player, you get a different line combo, you get a different guy, it kind of ignites you,” Hynes said. “It just helps sometimes mentally. It gets guys aware on the bench, it brings some energy — you gotta know who you’re changing for.”
Boldy especially.
On the shift before his goal, he made a terrific move on an individual effort between the circles before unleashing a shot that went crossbar, then post. The puck was sitting in the crease for Kaprizov to bury, but goalie Petr Mrázek, who was outstanding with 32 saves, got his stick on it to push it out of harm’s way.
But Hynes then called Kaprizov–Boldy–Zuccarello on Boldy’s next time out, and Boldy buried Kaprizov’s setup for his ninth goal. That tied Kaprizov for the team goal-scoring lead, with Kaprizov extending his road point streak to nine games.
Boldy said despite the fatigue, “We’re not going to quit on it.”
As Hynes alluded, line juggling at times is perfect for a sleepy team because it suddenly awakens players who know they better be alert to figure out who’s skating with who.
“Just listen,” Boldy said. “He does a good job of kind of giving an early call of who’s going, so just pay attention and be ready to go. Hynesie does a good job of letting guys know.”
Boldy has scored seven goals and 11 points in his past 11 games. Four of those goals were game-winners, with the one Sunday earning the Wild a point they could have turned into 2 if not for Philipp Kurashev’s winner. Boldy is on pace for 49 goals and 87 points.
“I always want to score,” Boldy said. “The more games I’ve played, another season in the books last year, more games at Worlds, you just learn how to do it, I think. It’s so hard. Guys are so good. There’s no one on the ice in this league that doesn’t bring something to the table that they’re really good at. You just find different ways to do it. I think I’ve just learned alternative routes to scoring goals and where to be and when to call for pucks and win battles and stuff like that.”
Kaprizov is the NHL’s second-leading scorer, but he doesn’t have to be the Wild’s only star. It’s not frowned upon to have two, and Boldy sure looks like he has the makings to be one.
“He’s got that confidence in himself, almost like a swagger,” Middleton said. “Well, it is a swagger. He wants the puck. He’s always calling for it when he’s open, and he’s gonna take pucks to areas to try and score goals, like that one he took — I think it went crossbar, post — just before he scored. Those kinds of plays are what he’ll do. He’ll put the team on his back and try to create something and make it happen.”
This has been a grind of a schedule for the Wild, who have played 10 of their first 15 games on the road. They’ll get a much-needed three days off in Minnesota, which Hynes hopes will be a welcomed mental and physical break. One player, Jonas Brodin, is banged up and didn’t finish the game, though Hynes doesn’t believe it’s serious.
The Wild will host the Montreal Canadiens and Dallas Stars starting Thursday before hitting the road again for three more.
But this schedule has been taxing. Heck, Middleton barely had time to change the first diaper of his newborn girl, Stevie, before hitting the road again.
“It’ll be exciting to get home and pick her up,” Middleton said.
This is why Hynes wasn’t about to beat up the Wild for getting only 1 point out of Chicago. This is why he’s not about to go off on Jared Spurgeon, who has been great since his return to the Wild’s lineup, for his OT misplay that led to Kurashev’s winner.
PHILIPP KURASHEV OT HERO pic.twitter.com/rOyPihtoJ6
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) November 11, 2024
“I’m really proud of our guys,” Hynes said. “Five out of 6 points on the road trip, and then coming in this game, I thought we played a heck of a third period. We dug in. We just kept grinding and grinding and grinding, and that’s how you have to find ways to win games, get points in games. Just really proud of the mental toughness and physical toughness of the guys as the game continued to go on to dig deep and play the style of game that you needed to play in the third period.”
As Hartman said, the Wild were happy to get a point in an otherwise “bad performance.”
“Obviously, we wanted to win that game,” Hartman said. “I think we, I won’t say deserved to win it, but we fought hard enough to maybe get a chance. So, happy with our third.”
(Photo: Patrick McDermott / Getty Images)
