Another thrilling Wild comeback victory last night in Pittsburgh with the 5-4 shootout win.
Wild head coach, Dean Evason, continues to push the right buttons juggling the lines and making the bold decisions to pull Cam Talbot early with his team down two and more than four minutes remaining in the third period.
After a great anticipation save by Tristan Jarry on Kirill Kaprizov's one timer, Evason utilized his timeout to keep his top guns on the ice. The captain rewarded his coaching staff and teammates by walking the blueline and letting loose a well positioned wrist shot through an excellent screen srt up in front of Jarry, by Joel Eriksson Ek. The shot carromed into the Penguins net off the right post and the Wild were within one.
The heroics were completed when Ryan Hartman buried the rebound of Matt Dumba's shot with 1.1 seconds remaining on the clock. Those heroics could not have happened without the strong play behind the Penguins net by Wild rookie, Adam Beckman.
Beckman, playing in just his third NHL game, pulled the puck off the back of the Penguins net beating Kris Letang , who was being checked by Marcus Foligno, in a stick battle, gained control of the puck and found Matt Dumba all alone in the slot. Dumba's shot carromed off Bryan Rust's skate to Hartman, who made no mistake..
The fact that Beckman was on the ice along Nico Sturm in that situation is credit to the coaching staff and in particular Dean Evason who knows the pulse of his team better than any of his recent predecessors.
We know the Penguins were severely shorthanded and all that but a gutsy gritty win on the road and two points all the same. That is not to mention Fiala and Kaprizov delivering in the shootout to set the stage for Nick Bjugstad to seal the win against his former team.
Tonight's opponent will be much tougher for the Wild as the Islanders visit the XCEL Energy Center coming off their own road victory last night, 2-0 shutout in Winnipeg over the Jets.
It will also be the homecoming of Zach Parise as he and his new mates, who are riding a 4-0-1 stretch in which they have allowed just four goals, with three shutouts. Parise has been pretty quiet in the early going with New York registering just two assists through nine games.
The Islanders are in the midst of a 13 game road trip to begin the season before the cut the ribbons on their new home, UBS Arena, on November 20th. They are 5-2-2 through the first nine of the road trip.
The Isles have been to the Eastern Conference finals in each of the last two seasons, losing out to Tampa both years. They are an elite team and a clear favorite to go far next Spring.
Big test for the Wild...
It's always Hockey Day in The State of Hockey!