One game after the Minnesota Wild’s opening shutout at home, the Maple Leafs lit the lamp for fun, even though analytics showed the Wild had a five-on-five advantage for 50 minutes. In a 7-4 win in which the Wild were out in the third period, Auston Matthews became the first Toronto player in history to open the season with back-to-back hat tricks, and William Nylander scored two goals. The Wild cut their deficit to 4-3 and had plenty of opportunities to tie the score, but were never able to get past Ilya Samsonov again. Even more concerning is that Matt Boldy, the Wild’s top forward in the game with one goal and five shots, and Pat Maroon were injured in the third period. The Leafs have beaten the Wild five times in a row and have scored points against them in seven straight games.
One game after defending well against Florida despite often staying in their zone, the Wild showed how much they miss captain Jared Spurgeon. The Jake Middleton-Alex Goligoski couple in particular had a terrible night. Middleton was on the ice for four goals against and Goligoski was on the ice for three – he shot himself in a pick on Toronto’s third goal with 22 seconds left in the first – and took a penalty that led to the Maple Leafs’ fourth goal. Jon Merrill also had two goals and Calen Addison had two. Even Jonas Brodin lost the ball unusually. But Middleton-Goligoski’s poor play led to assistant coach Bob Woods tying them twice in the second period. Unfortunately, they were together again for Matthews’ hat-trick goal.
This time Marco Rossi actually scores his first NHL goal
One game after scoring what he thought was a nice first NHL goal, but which was canceled due to an offside call by Marcus Foligno, Marco Rossi scored his first real NHL goal in the second period. After Boldy cut the deficit to two, the Wild were buzzing and Brock Faber found the net for the second time of the game. Samsonov checked the puck straight to Foligno and then sent Foligno’s rebound into the air to Rossi. The rookie hit the puck for his first goal in his 23rd NHL game. It was fitting that Foligno got the first assist after saying two nights earlier that he owed Rossi dinner for the overturned goal.
Too many passes from the top line
You would think they would have learned from the simple way Ryan Hartman scored the first goal of the game. He was in front and simply deflected Kirill Kaprizov’s shot from the point. But from that point on, Mats Zuccarello, Hartman and Kaprizov got way too sweet and couldn’t score another goal. Zuccarello in particular kept trying to set Kaprizov up for the first goal of his season and felt like they left a lot of goals on the ice, especially in the first half.
Turning point
With the Wild trailing 2-1 in the first period, Kaprizov deflected a shot between the circles while three-quarters of the net was empty. Then, 40 seconds after Samsonov parried Rossi with a quick shot from a partial breakaway, Marcus Johansson made a careless mistake in the final minute and let a puck get past him. Nylander then made a great play to give Toronto a 3-1 lead before halftime.
Three stars
1. Auston Matthews, Maple Leafs: Scored three goals and now has 10 in 11 career games against Minnesota.
2. William Nylander, Maple Leafs: Star right winger scored two goals on six shots and one assist.
3. Brock Faber, Wild: Easily the Wild’s best defender for the second game in a row. It was his shot into the net that gave Rossi his first goal.
Quotes about the game
“We gave them everything tonight.” – Foligno.
“This can’t happen. You can’t take a stupid – really stupid – bad penalty, and Goose knows that. We’ve addressed it, but it can’t happen. “That can’t happen in Game 2, and it can’t happen in the future.” – Coach Dean Evason on an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty by Goligoski in the third period that changed the momentum and the Wild lost 4-3.
“Yeah, doubles, missed coverages, penalties, obviously just some undisciplined play from us.” — Goligoski on playing in his own zone.
(Photo: Kevin Sousa/NHLI via Getty Images)