Great start to the road trip last night in Raleigh with the 3-1 victory over the Hurricanes.
We discussed it yesterday that Marc-Andre Fleury would get the first real test of his short Wild career facing the Hurricanes. He came through big time and some may argue that he stole the Wild two points with his stellar performance.
Cam Talbot gets the net tonight in the second half of the back to back as the Wild travel to the Nation's Capital to faceoff against the Capitals. It will be the first meeting of Kirill Kaprizov and Alex Ovechkin after last season's divisional regular season format and the first meeting of this season Kaprizov was out of the lineup due to injury.
Tyson Jost stepped into Matt Boldy's spot alongside Freddy Gaudreau and Kevin Fiala and delivered a key assist setting up Dmitry Kulikov for the Wild second goal last night and eventual game winner. Jost will get another opportunity tonight and look for him to make an impact as he gets more acclimated to his new linemates.
Speaking of stealing two points, the first Wild Capitals game this season back in January at the XCEL Energy Center, would clearly qualify as just that for the Wild. If you recall Minnesota was without nine regulars, including Kaprizov that night. They had tremendous difficulty mustering much offensively throughout the night, but thanks to the good fortune of Karl Hagelin's inadvertent pass sliding all the way down the ice into the open Capitals cage on a delayed penalty that was being called on the Wild. That goal gave the Wild life as it cut Washington's 2-0 lead in half after two periods.
Kevin Fiala took three minor penalties and was benched by Dean Evason for much of the third period despite the Wild's severely depleted lineup. Fiala sucked it up and cheered his mates on, finally talking his way back into action. He came up big setting up Mats Zuccarello for the game tying goal with Kaapo Kahkonen pulled in favor of the extra attacker.
Fiala put the exclamation point on the comeback with his shootout winner for the Wild.
Washington has not played since Monday night, when they were thumped at home by the Hurricanes by the count of 6-1. They have had nearly a week to work out the kinks from that game and to stew a bit on the lopsided defeat. They will be anxious to get back on the ice and prove that game was an aberration and get back on the winning track.
The Capitals are pretty well locked into fourth place in the Metropolitan Division and the second wildcard position 13 points clear of the Islanders and seven points behind Boston for the top wildcard position. There is not much to play for as far as standings for the Caps, but a lot to play for as they look to get into playoff form.
Minnesota is in a good spot to capitalize on an opportunity facing a Capitals team that could be a bit rusty while the Wild are primed after facing the ever dangerous Hurricanes last night. If the Wild can get out of the the gates early they may be able to catch the Capitals a little off pace due to their lack of recent game action. This may be a similar spot as St. Louis had when they were the primed group while the Wild had the long break between games leading up to the Winter Classic.
That is something I am sure Dean Evason will be stressing to his players prior to the game tonight and he will have his team playing up tempo hockey from the start.
It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!