{"id":538055,"date":"2026-04-03T06:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T06:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/538055\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T06:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T06:26:16","slug":"wild-clinch-spot-in-nhl-playoffs-with-another-chance-to-advance-for-1st-time-since-2015-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/538055\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild clinch spot in NHL playoffs with another chance to advance for 1st time since 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014 The Minnesota Wild 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

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 Vancouver 5-2 on Thursday night to get in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew all we had to do was win a game and we’re there,\u201d winger Ryan Hartman said. \u201cHappy with the result tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minnesota was eliminated by the Vegas Golden Knights in the first round last year, ending coach John Hynes\u2019 debut season.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s third year of existence.<\/p>\n

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

The Wild proved their commitment to contending this season by signing Kirill Kaprizov to an eight-year, $136 million contract extension \u2014 the richest deal in league history. The star winger has a team-high 83 points and now has Minnesota back in the postseason again.<\/p>\n

\"Minnesota<\/p>\n

Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson defends his net against the Vancouver Canucks during the second period of an NHL hockey game Thursday, April 2, 2026, in St. Paul, Minn. Credit: AP\/Matt Krohn<\/p>\n

\u201cWe make playoffs, it\u2019s nice,” Kaprizov said. \u201cIt’s the best time of the year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goaltender Filip Gustavsson has won twice as many games as he\u2019s lost while giving up a little more than 2 1\/2 goals per game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s such a talented kid, but now you’re starting to see the talent come into, I think, a mindset and a little bit of a swagger that you need to have as the main guy, and he’s done a good job of that,\u201d Hynes said. \u201cI think the guys play hard in front of him, and he’s done a good job too, I think, of earning the trust and respect of the group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minnesota has the league\u2019s longest active streak of consecutive winning seasons at 14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PAUL, Minn. \u2014 The Minnesota Wild have clinched a spot in the NHL playoffs, giving them another…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[463,464],"tags":[5,38,4,60,14,104,718,1105],"class_list":{"0":"post-538055","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-minnesota-wild","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-nhl-playoffs","13":"tag-stanley-cup","14":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs","15":"tag-stanley-cup-playoffs-nhl","16":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116339356243540150","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538055","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=538055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}