The Minnesota Wild and Vancouver Canucks faced each other for the last time of the season on Saturday, Apr. 12 in Vancouver. The Wild had a second chance to clinch a spot in the postseason with a win and a St. Louis Blues loss while the Canucks had already been eliminated. The Wild remained without Jake Middleton but added Jared Spurgeon to their injury list after he took a puck to the throat in their loss to the Calgary Flames on Friday night, Apr. 11.
The Canucks injury list was quite long as they were without Nils Aman, Tyler Myers, Max Sasson, Elias Pettersson (forward), and Filip Chytil. The goaltending matchup was between Filip Gustavsson who did play part of the night prior for the Wild and Kevin Lankinen for the Canucks as Thatcher Demko was out with an illness. The game started in favor of the Canucks but the Wild fought back, forced overtime and took the win 3-2. This moved the Wild to a record of 44-30-7 and the Canucks to 37-29-14.
Game Recap
The Canucks got things started just three minutes in with a goal by Marcus Pettersson to give his team an early lead. Linus Karlsson and Teddy Blueger assisted him. Despite some chances for both sides that was the only goal of the period and the Canucks took the lead into the first intermission.
The second period saw only one goal as well and it was scored by Jake DeBrusk on the power play to put the Canucks up 2-0. Nils Hoglander and Quinn Hughes assisted him. The Canucks took the two-goal lead into the second intermission.
The third period started with a goal by Brock Faber just 22 seconds into the period to pull the Wild back within a goal. The lone assist was given to Matt Boldy. Just past the 13-minute mark of the period, Marcus Foligno scored to tie the game 2-2. Ryan Hartman and Justin Brazeau assisted him. Those were the only goals of the third, and overtime was needed to determine a winner.
It was a back-and-forth overtime, but the Wild’s Mats Zuccarello had a short breakaway behind the defense and beat Lankinen to take the win 3-2 in overtime. Zuccarello was assisted by Kirill Kaprizov and Faber. The Wild didn’t clinch a spot in the playoffs due to the Blues going to a shootout and still earning a point, but they got themselves two points closer.
The Wild will head back home to finish the regular season as they host the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday, Apr. 15. The Canucks will remain at home to host the San Jose Sharks on Monday, Apr. 14.
