The final stat sheet for Minnesota’s 3-0 win over the Montreal Canadiens shows that the Wild were officially shorthanded for six minutes, thanks to a trio of penalties, all of which they killed.
In reality, the Wild’s 11th consecutive home win over their guests from Quebec — a streak that dates back more than a decade — came via more than 45 minutes of reduced manpower, after a key pair of Wild forwards were lost to lower-body injuries in the first period and their captain was lost for a time in the third.
Mats Zuccarello and Joel Ericksson Ek left the game in the opening 20 minutes and did not return thanks to lower-body injuries, forcing coach John Hynes to jury-rig a line chart with his 10 remaining forwards. Defenseman Jared Spurgeon took a stick up high in the third and was gone for a few minutes as well.
“Cold beers are in order for sure,” Hynes said after the final horn. “It was actually tough with it because, to be honest, the 10 forwards is hard. Like, if you had nine, you could just go three lines… But we found some combinations that we kind of stuck with as it goes through. Sometimes you get in that situation you’re kind of rolling a little bit, see who’s going, see if something clicks.”
Goals by Matt Boldy and Marco Rossi were the only offense needed, as Filip Gustavsson had 19 saves for his first shutout of the season. Kirill Kaprizov added an empty-net goal with 19.3 seconds remaining.
From his end of the rink, Gustavsson saw players who are increasingly familiar with each other find a way to fight through the adversity.
“Everyone practices with everyone all the time; everyone has a little bit of connection with all the guys around them and knows how they play,” said the goalie. “So I think we just stuck to the plan and some guys got more ice time, some don’t, or they just took advantage of it.”
Showing surprisingly little rust for a team that had not played a game since Sunday (an overtime loss in Chicago) and had two days off this week, the Wild made several rushes into the Canadiens’ zone, but came away with little in the way of shots on goal, and nothing that fooled Montreal goalie Sam Montembeault in the opening 20 minutes.
Montreal recorded just two shots in the opening period — both of them by defensemen — but things managed to get challenging for the Wild regardless, when two players left the rink unexpectedly.
With just over seven minutes to play in the first and the Wild controlling play in the offensive zone, Brock Faber sent a rising wrist shot toward the Montreal net, only to have the puck catch Mats Zuccarello near the beltline.
The Wild forward crumpled to the ice and was helped down the tunnel to the locker room once play was whistled dead.
A few minutes later, forward Joel Ericksson Ek headed to the locker room with an injury as well, prompting some line juggling by the Wild coaching staff.
Most notably, Boldy moved up to the right wing on the top line to take Zuccarello’s spot with Rossi at center and Kaprizov on the other wing. Marcus Johansson later took Rossi’s spot on the top line, and it worked.
Minnesota’s patched-together offense finally broke through with just over seven minutes to play in the middle frame when Boldy popped in a cross-crease feed from Johansson.
“They’re big guys on our team that play a lot of minutes and guys that we rely on a lot,” Boldly said of Zuccarello and Ericksson Ek. “So (it) sucks to see them leave the game, but guys dug in and we kind of found a way.”
Then the injury list got a bit longer, when Canadiens defenseman Jayden Struble delivered a high stick to the face of Spurgeon, who also left the game but returned a few minutes later and assisted on Rossi’s power play goal to extend the lead.
Hynes said he expects to know more on Friday about the status of the two forwards, and or defenseman Jonas Brodin, who missed Thursday’s game with an upper-body injury.
Montembeault had 25 saves for Montreal, which has now lost seven of its past eight games.
“I really like our defending — to me it is all about attitude,” said Canadiens coach Martin St. Louis, looking for a silver lining. “We have structure but our attitude right now is in the right place and it allows us to be in games. I know we haven’t gotten the results but I think if we keep going in that direction we’re going to get better results.”
The Wild are back on the ice Saturday evening when they host Dallas.