{"id":537837,"date":"2026-04-03T04:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T04:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/537837\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T04:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T04:04:11","slug":"wild-clinch-nhl-playoff-berth-seek-to-advance-for-1st-time-since-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/537837\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild clinch NHL playoff berth, seek to advance for 1st time since 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ST. PAUL, Minn. &#8212; The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/team\/_\/name\/min\/minnesota-wild\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Minnesota Wild<\/a> have clinched a spot in the NHL playoffs, giving them another chance to advance in the postseason for the first time since 2015.<\/p>\n<p>The Wild earned a bid 75 games in after clinching last year in the 82nd and final game of the regular season. They beat league-worst <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/team\/_\/name\/van\/vancouver-canucks\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Vancouver<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/boxscore\/_\/gameId\/401803550\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">5-2<\/a> on Thursday night to get in.<\/p>\n<p>Minnesota was eliminated by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/team\/_\/name\/vgk\/vegas-golden-knights\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Vegas Golden Knights<\/a> in the first round last year, ending coach John Hynes&#8217; debut season.<\/p>\n<p>The Wild failed to advance in seven postseason appearances between 2016 and 2023. Their deepest run in the playoffs was a trip to the conference finals in 2003 in the franchise&#8217;s third year of existence.<\/p>\n<p>The Minnesota North Stars lost in the 1981 and 1991 Stanley Cup Final. They relocated to Dallas in 1993, becoming the Stars, and hoisted the Cup in 1999.<\/p>\n<p>The Wild proved their commitment to contending this season by signing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/3942335\/kirill-kaprizov\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kirill Kaprizov<\/a> to an eight-year, $136 million contract extension &#8212; the richest deal in league history. The star winger has a team-high 83 points.<\/p>\n<p>Goaltender <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nhl\/player\/_\/id\/4272674\/filip-gustavsson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Filip Gustavsson<\/a> has won twice as many games as he&#8217;s lost while giving up a little more than 2\u00bd goals per game.<\/p>\n<p>Minnesota has the league&#8217;s longest active streak of consecutive winning seasons at 14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PAUL, Minn. &#8212; The Minnesota Wild have clinched a spot in the NHL playoffs, giving them another&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":537838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[463,464],"tags":[5,4,60,14,104,718],"class_list":{"0":"post-537837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl-playoffs","8":"category-stanley-cup-playoffs","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-nhl-playoffs","12":"tag-stanley-cup","13":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","14":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs-nhl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116338796991296245","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537837","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=537837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/537837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=537837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=537837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=537837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}