![\"Minnesota](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/STP-L-jea-94-WILD_MEDIA_DAY-0918-Gustavsson_01.jpg\")
Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson (32) is photographed during the team’s media day in St. Paul on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (John Autey \/ Pioneer Press).<\/p>\nThursday\u2019s Wild win over Vancouver was filled with superlatives for Minnesota\u2019s NHL club. Not only did the 5-2 victory clinch a playoff spot for the 12th time in the past 14 seasons, goals by Matt Boldy and Kirill Kaprizov made them the first duo to each record 40 in a single season in franchise history.<\/p>\n
In addition, a second-period assist by Quinn Hughes gave him the franchise\u2019s single-season record for helpers by a defenseman with 46 in 43 games since coming to town in a December trade.<\/p>\n
Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson (32) is photographed during the team’s media day in St. Paul on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2024. (John Autey \/ Pioneer Press).<\/p>\n
Amid all of that, it was easy to overlook the 30 saves posted by Filip Gustavsson as he earned his 100th win in a Wild sweater. He reached the milestone quietly, which is his accepted way of doing things.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s the backbone there. He gives us a lot of confidence,\u201d Boldly said of Gustavsson, 27, who signed a five-year, $34 million contract extension with the Wild at the start of the current season. \u201cHe keeps us in a lot of games, and he makes the saves he has to. To have a guy like that back there definitely brings confidence to the whole group.\u201d<\/p>\n
After working his way up through the development system in his native Sweden, Gustavsson came to North America full time in 2018, starting out in the Ottawa Senators\u2019 system. After four years on this side of the Atlantic, he had appeared in fewer than 30 NHL games, and was mulling a return to Sweden.<\/p>\n
But a trade to Minnesota in the summer of 2022 reignited his career. Gustavsson got more playing time, and a chance to learn from future hall-of-famer Marc-Andre Fleury.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s funny how that works out. You know, you get a small opportunity, then it goes well and now we\u2019re here, what is it, three years later,\u201d said Gustavsson, who played for Team Sweden in the Winter Olympics two months ago. \u201cA lot of fun along the way, and one hundred wins is a lot of wins.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since Fleury\u2019s retirement at the end of last season, Gustavsson has gone from mentee to mentor, helping develop budding star Jesper Wallstedt.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it was a great experience for him, being around Flower,\u201d Wild coach John Hynes said. \u201cThey\u2019re different people and they go about things differently, but you can see some lessons that he\u2019s learned from that and I think he\u2019s done a great job with Wally.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Fleury was known for his theatrical sweeping gloves saves and diving from post to post, doing anything and everything necessary to keep the puck on the other side of the goal line, Gustavsson plays a quiet game. For him, the perfect save requires little movement or effort, because he\u2019s already in position and knows where the puck is going to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s grown as a goalie, the consistency level he\u2019s played with. His game has gotten better,\u201d Hynes said, noting that Gustavsson\u2019s consistency instills an important confidence in the entire team. \u201cI think even his maturity and demeanor, being a regular starter and playing consistently and regularly and giving ourselves a chance to win, the way that he practices. \u2026 He\u2019s such a talented kid, but now you\u2019re starting to see the talent come into, I think, a mindset and I think a little bit of swagger you need to have as that main guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Likely to be the Wild\u2019s every night starter come playoff time, Gustavsson has a few chances to begin working on his next 100 wins in the seven regular-season games remaining.<\/p>\n
Briefly<\/p>\n
Thursday was the Wild\u2019s first home game since NHL.com writer and podcaster Jessi Pierce and her three children were identified as the victims of a March 21 house fire in White Bear Lake. There was a video tribute to the family and a moment of silence in honor of Pierce, 38, and her children Hudson, Cayden and Avery before the national anthems were played. Pierce\u2019s regular seat in the Grand Casino Arena press box was decorated with a bouquet of flowers and a framed photo of Pierce taken at the arena just a few weeks ago. A memorial service for the four family members was held last weekend, drawing hundreds of mourners which included Wild general manager Bill Guerin and several players who paid their respects. Pierce had covered the Wild for the past 10 seasons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thursday\u2019s Wild win over Vancouver was filled with superlatives for Minnesota\u2019s NHL club. Not only did the 5-2…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538875,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5118],"tags":[535,5,1119,161,38,5280,4,43,162],"class_list":{"0":"post-538874","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-wild","8":"tag-filip-gustavsson","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-john-hynes","11":"tag-minnesota","12":"tag-minnesota-wild","13":"tag-minnesotawild","14":"tag-nhl","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-wild"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116342097617230574","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538874","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=538874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}