The Wild got back into the win column last night, that is a positive for sure. They beat the first place team in the Pacific Division, that too is a positive. They overcame a third period deficit in the process, yet another positive. Devan Dubnyk made several big saves including an amazing stick save on Jonathan Marchessault to preserve the win, a huge positive for the Wild.
Now it was not all roses for the Wild or for Dubnyk for that matter last night. Dubnyk was beaten cleanly by three shots that all caught iron and the two goals that he gave up were a direct result of him going down prematurely. Being a 6'6" goalie is a huge asset, but when you go down too soon that advantage is minimized and the upper portion of the net is exposed.
The Wild defense played much better last night as well. Ryan Murphy really stood out the entire night, but his biggest contribution was a perfectly timed poke check of Reilly Smith that saved what would have been the game tying goal at the time.
Murphy is going to have to be relied upon a lot more as the injury to Jared Spurgeon may be worse than first anticipated, and could keep him sidelined longer than just tomorrow's game. Murphy has offensive upside and the former 12th overall pick from 2011 has played over 150 NHL games and his experience is going to be called upon for sure if Spurgeon is unable to accompany the team to the West Coast following Saturday's home game rematch with St. Louis.
In addition to Murphy, the Wild defense was very much involved in the scoring. Jonas Brodin scored the tying goal for the Wild and Mike Reilly set up Mikael Granlunds 2nd period goal with a heads up play and great pass finding Granlund for the one timer from the right slot. Matt Dumba faked a slapshot freezing Vegas winger, Tomas Nosek, pulled it down while walking around Nosek, then letting a snap shot fly. Dumba's shot caromed off Deryk Engelland's glove right to Staal who had a wide open net to slide in his 9th of the season. It is back to work today for the Wild as they prepare for a much tougher test tomorrow with the Western Conference leading Blues. Better attention to detail is needed still so practice time is critical today.