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ST. PAUL, Minn — In a measuring stick game against the Dallas Stars without three of their best players, it was always going to be tough sledding for the Wild on Saturday night. And it sure was.
The Wild weren’t close the first two periods, were outshot 27-11 through 40 minutes and were ultimately defeated by a 2-1 score thanks to a two-goal night from Mason Marchment . Advertisement Only Filip Gustavsson kept the Wild a goal away from tying until Marchment scored a second time with 8:36 left. In all, the Wild were outshot 40-23 but made it a game with 5:50 left when Kirill Kaprizov deflected home Jared Spurgeon ’s point shot to cut the deficit to one.
Matt Boldy hit the post with 64 seconds left. The Wild played the game without top-six forwards Joel Eriksson Ek and Mats Zuccarello and defenseman Jonas Brodin . The Wild will take Sunday off, but the good news is coach John Hynes anticipated Eriksson Ek and Brodin to practice Monday before the Wild leave for St.
Louis to start a three-game road trip. Lakeville, Minn.’s, Jake Oettinger made 22 saves for the win.
The Stars improved to 8-3 in the past 11 regular season meetings with the Wild, who have not defeated the Stars in regulation in 12 games dating back to Nov. 18, 2021. Boldy shows he’s not a center With Zuccarello still hospitalized and sidelined for “probably three to four weeks” following an awful injury and subsequent surgery to below his beltline, the new Kirill Kaprizov-Matt Boldy-Marcus Johansson did not have a lot of chemistry.
Kaprizov sent a handful of spinning cross-zone hope passes that normally Zuccarello would be there for and Boldy and Johansson didn’t expect, Kaprizov looked rusty with swings and misses and only had one shot on goal and one other attempt in the first two periods. Most disconcerting was the fact that Boldy’s normally not a center and had trouble winning key draws, especially on the Wild’s two power plays. In the first period, he was beaten on five of seven draws, including cleanly by Tyler Seguin on Mason Marchment’s redirect goal off Ilya Lyubushkin ’s point shot.
Hynes had dismissed any concern about Boldy in the circle in the past two days and continued to show no worry in the first two periods because he didn’t put a natural center like Marco Rossi , Freddy Gaudreau or Ryan Hartman on the top line to take faceoffs. Advertisement Finally, in the third period, he moved Boldy to right wing with Rossi back to No. 1 center and Kaprizov on the left.
The line instantly spent most of their shifts in the offensive zone, and what do you know, Rossi won the draw that led to Kaprizov’s 11th goal late in the third. With the top line change, Hynes moved Hartman from the second line to the third line with Marcus Foligno and Yakov Trenin and Johansson onto the second line with Gaudreau and Liam Ohgren . Ohgren was recalled with Eriksson Ek sidelined.
He had two shots in the game. WE GOT THAT FIGHT IN US. pic.
twitter.com/2SftABDbkW — Dallas Stars (@DallasStars) November 17, 2024 Couple first-period scraps Maybe in an attempt to get the Wild going after lacking much oomph in the first period, Jake Middleton dropped the gloves with Brendan Smith . Middleton won the bout, but his mother, Darlene, didn’t watch despite being in the stands.
Middleton’s mom said she kept her tradition going of never watching either of her professional hockey player sons when they decide to throw punches. Three minutes later, Zach Bogosian fought Matt Dumba as a response to what he thought was an uncalled-illegal hit into the boards of teammate Jakub Lauko . Replays appeared to show Lauko losing an edge, although Dumba certainly helped him into the boards at the end of the hard collision with the corner boards.
Jake Middleton drops the gloves pic.twitter.com/TrBd1dWawV — Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) November 17, 2024 Milne makes his NHL debut Mikey Milne, 22, a third-round pick in 2022, made his NHL debut.
Milne was first called up before the Wild’s recent three-game road trip to be the extra forward on the trip. An Iowa assistant coach pulled the ultimate decoy after practice by calling Milne into the office to watch video. Once he entered, the entire coaching staff informed him he was being called up for the first time in his career as a reward for being Iowa’s most consistent forward.
Advertisement He was sent down Monday, then recalled again to open the homestand when Johansson was sick as insurance. So while he didn’t play the first four games of his NHL tenure, he finally got in with Eriksson Ek and Zuccarello hurt. It was a dream come true for Milne, who was passed through the draft the first time he was eligible and has dealt with myriad shoulder injuries that have required surgeries both in junior and in his Wild career.
He missed the past two Wild training camps for the most part. “I’ve been a little bit unlucky with my shoulders,” Milne said. “But I’ve been able to take care of them when healthy.
And obviously had the surgery on the right one about a year ago. They’ve been good ever since, and just trying to stay strong through it all. Obviously, you don’t want to have injuries, but it builds you stronger as a person and mentally as well.
Probably wouldn’t be here today without that because you’ve got to go through the grind to get here and just try to take every lesson as I can.” Milne’s mother, Deryn, father, Jerry, and girlfriend, Madison, were in attendance. Milne had three hits in eight shifts, and it was an otherwise tough night for the fourth line with Lauko and Marat Khusnutdinov .
Filip Gustavsson gives Mikey Milne an extra long rookie solo lap before his NHL debut pic.twitter.com/fHKeit8UjI — Michael Russo (@RussoHockey) November 17, 2024 (Photo: Matt Blewett / Imagn Images).
