That’s Wild
You always want the representatives of the Minnesota Wild doing well at the various international tournaments they possibly pop into. But on the grandest stage of them all at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in the first best-on-best tournament since 2014, the stakes are only higher. In the first day of men’s hockey, two goalies in the Wild organization had extremely different experiences.
In the opener between Slovakia and Finland, the underdog Central Europeans and AHL Iowa Wild netminder Samuel Hlavaj were crowned with a massive 4-1 win. While the 24-year-old Slovakian netminder is having a just-fine season in Des Moines, he delivered a sensational 39-save performance in the biggest game of his career as of late. We were all riding super high on the potential future of the Wild’s crease — and that all came crashing down in the next game.
As Sweden faced the host nation Italy, we all worried that there would be an embarrassing level of domination from the Swedes. Well, Italy scored first and then proceeded to somehow score on about one of every four shots they sent Wild starter Filip Gustavsson’s way. At one point, Gustavsson allowed two goals on four shots. Abysmal.
Thankfully, Sweden squeaked out with a 5-2 win to open their tournament and Gustavsson saved 20 of 22 shots faced to make his numbers look better after 60 minutes. Just an extremely, extremely rough first couple of minutes for our netminder.
Elsewhere in the game, Joel Eriksson Ek finished with nine shots on goal in 17 minutes of ice-time. Our guy.
A big narrative heading into this season was the dozens of prospects making the jump from the CHL to the NCAA. For the Wild prospects that went down that path, they’re succeeding. [Hockey Wilderness]
A whole lot is being made about who the Wild can add at the trade deadline to fill their hole in the top-six forward group. Is Steven Stamkos that guy? [Hockey Wilderness]
Brock Faber is heading to his second Olympics, but it’s going to be a vastly difference experience. [StarTribune]
Off the trail…
A deep dive on the 12 teams at the Olympics as the men’s tournament started Wednesday. [ESPN]
More notably, Canada and U.S. begin their quest to collide for gold. [NHL.com]
After being charged for felony assault (and then the felony part of those charges dropped), top 2026 NHL Draft prospect Gavin McKenna will continue to participate in hockey activities at Penn State even with the hearing not happening until March. [Sportsnet]
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