Alex Bader
The Minnesota Wild fell to the Vegas Knights by a score of 3-2, after what was a valiant effort to rally in the third period, but a poor start to the game doomed the Wild. Minnesota failed to show up early and failed to capitalize on their chances, they fall to 9-4 on the season, but are still tied with the St. Louis with 18 points for first in the Central.
The Minnesota Wild were riding a four-game winning streak coming into the game. There had to be an extra sense of revenge in the Wild locker room, to go take down the team that ended their season last year, in game 7 of the playoffs.
After playing a game the night before, the Minnesota Wild started the game against the Vegas Knights incredibly slow.
Paul Cotter, buried a shot past Talbot to give Vegas the early lead with 14 minutes to play in the first period. It was Cotter's first career goal in his second game for Vegas.
The Wild only had two shots on goal 10 minutes into the game.
Cotter took a penalty and put the Wild on the power-play with a chance to tie, with six minutes to play in the first period.
The power-play failed to score after not doing anything too frightening for Vegas. Talbot had to make a short-handed stop.
It was a night of firsts for Vegas.
Rondbjerg blew past Goligoski and got his first career goal to double the Knights' lead, 2-0.
Vegas had both of their goals come from their fourth line, and they were both first career goals.
Minnesota went into the first intermission down two, 2-0 Vegas.
Minnesota lost the majority of the puck battles in their own zone, they just looked slow and disjointed in the first.
It was an ugly first period for Minnesota, plain and simple.
Vegas outshot the Wild by 16-5 in the first frame.
However, the Wild have shown their ability to come back in games all season long.
They needed to have a better second period to get any hopes of a comeback rolling.
Fiala had a great chance in the first minute, he zipped down the side and ripped a shot low blocker.
Foligno had a huge hit to try and jump-start the Wild.
Unfortunately, Goligoksi got called for tripping and put Vegas on the power-play.
In the final seconds of the Wild penalty kill, Talbot made a save, and then Dumba took a shot to his knee and was in visible agony.
Minnesota killed the Vegas power-play.
The Wild put the Knights back on the power-play with a Gaudreau delay of game penalty. It came after Vegas had another odd-man rush, and Gaudreau hit the net off of its moorings on his backcheck.
The Wild killed the second Vegas power-play.
Minnesota continued to struggle to get anything going offensively.
A nifty give-and-go between Kaprizov and Zuccarello created another power-play chance for the Wild.
Minnesota got a lucky 5 on 3 man-advantage for 14 seconds due to a delay of game penalty on Vegas. Minnesota couldn't get the goal.
Did someone find a lucky penny?
Minnesota got super lucky, the Knights got another delay of game penalty and the Wild had a 5 on 3 man-advantage for 1:39. The Wild had an amazing chance, It was like Christmas morning.
Vegas opened the door for the Wild to get back into the game, but somehow Minnesota failed to score in a must-score opportunity.
It looked like the Wild would go into the third period only down by two.
However, with 7.0 seconds left in the second, Marchessault scored his seventh goal of the year to put Vegas up by three and what would be the eventual game winner.
It was a better period than the first for Minnesota, but the missed chances and turnovers hurt them.
Minnesota had a lot of work ahead of them in the third period if they were to have another comeback win.
Kaprizov did a little shimmy turn and gave Spurgeon a beautiful pass, who sniped it, 1:20 into the third period to give the Wild a little bit of life. Vegas with the lead, 3-1.
Shortly after the goal, Minnesota got their fifth power-play chance of the game, and a great opportunity to claw back into the game.
Minnesota had some chances, but again they failed to capitalize with the man-advantage.
With just over six minutes left in the third period, Hartman - the team leader in goals with seven - scored while on his knee to give Minnesota life. Minnesota trailed by only one, 3-2 Vegas,
In a game where Vegas had control of it, somehow the Wild found themselves back in the game.
With just under three minutes left in the game, Minnesota pulled the goalie.
At the 2:14 mark of the third period, Wild coach, Dean Evason, called a timeout.
With 1:03 left in the third period, Vegas again opened the door for the Wild, Minnesota had a power-play and a great chance to tie the game with a 6 on 4 man-advantage.
Unfortunately, Minnesota failed yet again to capitalize with the man-advantage.
The rally fell short and Vegas beat the Wild, 3-2.
Minnesota failed to capitalize on their chances. They played a poor 40 minutes to start the game and didn't have enough gas in the tank to complete the rally.
Talbot did everything he could to keep the Wild in the game, he was the best player on the ice for Minnesota.
BADER'S TAKE
What a lousy performance.
After doing their job against the Coyotes, Minnesota couldn't get anything to fall for them tonight.
Minnesota had several, several, several chances to get back into the game but failed to find the netting.
They missed the net way too much.
No one should blame the ice quality either, the Vegas Knights were playing on the same ice and they managed to score the goals.
The Wild got beat by the better team tonight. Vegas wanted it more and they showed it with their game, their physicality, and their willingness to win the puck battles.
Minnesota lost a lot of the puck battles, especially in the early parts of the game. They were lazy and coughed up bad turnovers that led to goals.
They failed to score on several grade-A chances. It was like they were snake bitten to score.
They failed to score on almost two minutes of a 5 on 3 man-advantage in a moment when they needed a goal in the second period.
Vegas opened the door for the Wild plenty of times, but the Wild failed to score on the power-play, they went 0-6.
If a team is given 6 power-play chances and fail to score on all of them, they do not deserve the win.
This is where the stars like Kaprizov and Fiala needed to be able to turn the switch on and take over the game like we have seen from stars like McDavid and MacKinnon.
Vegas had several of their stars not playing due to injury or illness.
It should have been a game that had the Wild's star players took over. Instead, it was a game where the fourth line of Vegas took over in the first period and the Knights never looked back.
Kaprizov and Fiala are amazing players, but are they the all-stars that can take over the game at any given moment?
They both have had quiet games and have been utterly invisible on the ice at times this season.
The Wild are paying Kaprizov a lot of money to score goals, and that is the expectation.
In a game where the whole team was playing poorly - outside of Talbot who played great - you need your stars to step up and take over the game.
It was a valiant effort in the third period, but the rally fell short this time.
Minnesota learned the hard lesson, that a full 60 minutes of strong play is what it takes to win, can't just show up in the third and expect to comeback. Especially playing on the second night of back-to-backs, falling down three was costly.
In the end, their mistakes proved to be too costly.
Let's hope that the Minnesota Wild can get back on track when they face-off in a rematch against the Seattle Kraken. They will need their roleplaying guys to play better, but more importantly, they need their stars to show up.
The Kraken are struggling in terms of their record, 1-4 in their last 5, but they are still a formidable team that the Wild cannot take for granted.
What's Next:
Minnesota ( 9-4 18 pts. ) AT Seattle ( 4-9-1 9 pts. ) Saturday November, 13th. Puck drop at 9 p. m. central.
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