Generally speaking, a 5-minute major penalty and a 5-on-3 power play are sure-fire momentum changers in a hockey game. If the attacking team scores, they get a vital notch on the scoreboard. If the defending team can kill the penalty, they usually get back to full strength flush with confidence that can swing the tide their way.<\/p>\n
Early in the Wild\u2019s eventual 5-0 blowout of Utah on Tuesday, Minnesota got a two-man advantage for a minute. When a Mammoth player broke his stick on the ensuing faceoff, it became a de facto three-man advantage. Minnesota got looks and good puck movement, but Utah managed to kill it off. A team that has often had the Wild\u2019s number for the past two seasons looked to grab the momentum and dominate Minnesota again.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t happen, for two reasons.<\/p>\n
First, the Wild stayed even-keeled and confident in their special teams, which have been among the NHL\u2019s best in the second half of the season. Second, Kirill Kaprizov did the things he does, scoring an amazing goal from one knee to give Minnesota a first-intermission lead that it would not relinquish.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, you want to score. At one point, it was pretty much a 5-on-2,\u201d Wild defenseman Quinn Hughes said. \u201cI think you\u2019re more just frustrated, so there\u2019s no sagging. You just want to get back out there and make a play.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Wild coach John Hynes, the team\u2019s penalty kill has thwarted 11 of the last 12 opponent power plays heading into Thursday night\u2019s meeting with Philadelphia, and he found little to complain about even if the Wild didn\u2019t score with the lopsided man advantage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Kirill could\u2019ve had three goals on that (power play),\u201d Hynes said, tipping his cap to the Utah goalie for being the best Mammoth penalty killer. \u201cSo, I think when you generate the looks, whether you just miss or the goalie makes a big save, I think that\u2019s important. \u2026 I thought we executed, it just didn\u2019t go in the net.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaprizov leads the team on the man advantage, scoring 16 of his 37 goals with an opponent in the penalty box before Thursday\u2019s game.<\/p>\n
Minor league move coming for Wild<\/p>\n
Most Wild prospects start their careers in Iowa before hopefully making their way one state north to the NHL club in Minnesota. The Wild\u2019s AHL team plays in Des Moines, while their ECHL team \u2014 pro hockey\u2019s version of Double-A baseball \u2014 has played in Coralville, Iowa, since 2021. That will change next season.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the week, owners of the Iowa Heartlanders announced the team will suspend operations for the 2026-27 season, citing financial concerns.<\/p>\n
The Heartlanders, who play in the 4,800-seat Xtream Arena, located just a few miles from the University of Iowa campus, were in the cellar for ECHL attendance last season, averaging just over 1,500 a game, while the league-wide average is around 4,400. The Wild are currently looking for their next ECHL home base.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s disappointing, but we\u2019re working on it,\u201d general manager Bill Guerin said. \u201cIt was great there, but I get it, it\u2019s a business and if it can\u2019t survive, it can\u2019t survive. It\u2019s such a great arena and a great community. \u2026 Hopefully they can revisit in a year or two and see if something can be done.\u201d<\/p>\n
There has been some exploration of an ECHL team in the Twin Cities, but most agree that with youth hockey, prep hockey, junior hockey, college hockey and the NHL all currently playing in the market, it would be challenging to find a consistent ticket base for a new minor league team.<\/p>\n
The building also houses Hawkeyes volleyball. But with Xtream Arena losing its hockey tenant, some have advocated Iowa becoming the eighth member of the Big Ten hockey conference, although there is seemingly little interest in adding a sport within the athletic department there. As recently as 2020, Iowa cut four varsity sports, eliminating its men\u2019s gymnastics, men\u2019s and women\u2019s swimming and men\u2019s tennis programs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Generally speaking, a 5-minute major penalty and a 5-on-3 power play are sure-fire momentum changers in a hockey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5118],"tags":[5,537,161,38,5280,4,43,162],"class_list":{"0":"post-500143","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-wild","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-kirill-kaprizov","10":"tag-minnesota","11":"tag-minnesota-wild","12":"tag-minnesotawild","13":"tag-nhl","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-wild"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}