The Minnesota Wild finished off the 2026 Hockey Day celebrations when they took on the Florida Panthers on Saturday, Jan. 24. It was also the final 25th anniversary celebration night for the Wild that saw former players Alex Goligoski, Eric Staal, and Marc-André Fleury on the ice for a ceremonial puck drop.
The Wild had a boost to their line-up as they got Matt Boldy back after he missed the past four games with an injury. They remained without Zach Bogosian and, of course, Jonas Brodin, who won’t be back until after the Olympic break at the earliest. Filip Gustavsson was back in the net, and the game started out in favor of the Panthers.
The Wild had to fight back multiple times throughout the game, and they had the lead at one point, but the Panthers bounced back and forced overtime. In this article, we’ll look at a few takeaways from the game, starting with how the Wild need to be more disciplined.
Wild Need to be Disciplined
It was a game full of penalties for both sides, and although the Wild did capitalize on the Panthers taking penalties, they couldn’t escape their own. However, the bright side was that they were able to kill off those penalties, with the exception of the second one they took that led to a go-ahead goal at the time. That was until the third period, when they scored shorthanded, which gave them their first lead, only for it to be taken back with the remaining power play time for the Panthers.
While the penalties weren’t the direct cause of their loss, if the Panthers had been unsuccessful on at least one of the two power plays they scored on, this could’ve been a different game. This was one of the Wild’s highest penalized games of the season, with 17 minutes in penalties, and hopefully for them, it won’t happen again.
“Yeah it’s one of those games a lot of power plays, power play, penalty kill back and forth so it is what it is, it’s a part of the game, some games are like that and you try your best to kind of keep that rhythm and flow throughout the game,” said Matt Boldy about trying to find a flow with all the special teams.
Wild’s Kaprizov Back At It
It may have seemed like Kirill Kaprizov was rather quiet in terms of points recently, although he had registered assists. Before their win over the Detroit Red Wings on Thursday night, Jan. 22, he hadn’t scored a goal in nearly two weeks. Now he’s done so in consecutive games, and he’s had multiple points in each of the past five games.
He got the first goal of the game for the Wild against the Panthers to tie it up 1-1, and then he assisted on the second goal to tie it up 2-2. Unfortunately for the Wild, that’s where his contributions stopped as Boldy’s goal was unassisted, which was great, but it wasn’t enough as the Panthers responded.
Kirill Kaprizov, Minnesota Wild (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)
The Wild had solid chances in overtime, especially Kaprizov, but none of them were willing to take the shot, and it cost them. The Panthers capitalized on a bad turnover, and their two-on-one made it past Gustavsson for the win.
Wild’s Gustavsson Solid Until the End
In a game that was basically all special teams, Filip Gustavsson did the best he could with all the penalty kills he faced, as well as the power plays. He was peppered with shots to open the first, and although the first goal of the game was an awkward rebound, he bounced back and made the saves needed for his team to tie it.
Then came the Panthers’ power play that proved difficult for the Wild to stop as they scored twice with the man advantage. The first was a tricky backhand through traffic, and the second was a defensive mistake that allowed two Panthers to be all alone in front of the net. The same can be said for the overtime goal that Gustavsson had almost no way to stop.
“It takes some small mistakes and then there’s a good chance two-on-one, and makes a good pass, makes a good shot, it’s hard to get over so,” said Gustavsson about the overtime and continued about the penalties, “Some guys that play both, and some play just power play and some play just pk and it sucks for the others and you have to keep control of those penalties so we can play 5-on-5, and sometimes games like this happen.”
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The Wild have a couple of days off to get some needed rest and take in this game, because although they did get an important point, they could’ve used the second one in a tight battle for the postseason. Hopefully, they learn from this game and can stay out of the penalty box when they’re back in action on Tuesday, Jan. 27, against the Chicago Blackhawks.
