PHILADELPHIA – It was an effort that seemed to point the Minnesota Wild in the right direction, even if the end result left them feeling let down once again.
After getting blown out in Washington a night earlier, the Wild showed much more fight and resilience in Philadelphia on Saturday, only to fall short in overtime. Stillwater native Noah Cates blasted a shot in the 3-on-3 extra session, lifting the Flyers to a 2-1 come-from-behind win and handing Minnesota its fourth loss in the past five games.
Leading with less than 14 minutes to play on Vladimir Tarasenko’s first goal as a member of the Wild, the Flyers turned the tables and dominated the late stretches of the game. Minnesota fell to 2-3-1 with the loss.
“I thought we were much more competitive and engaged in the competitive areas of the game,” Wild coach John Hynes said. “So I thought that was a step in the right direction.”
Jesper Wallstedt, making his second start of the season for the Wild, had 19 saves in the game, as Minnesota failed to gain separation after taking a lead.
Already beset with their share of injuries, the Wild lost top-line center Joel Eriksson Ek on the game’s opening shift. While defending in front of the Minnesota net, an inadvertent high stick caught Eriksson Ek in the face.
There was a delay of the game while the arena crew cleaned Eriksson Ek’s blood off the ice in front of the Wild crease. No penalty was called on the play. He returned to the game with just under eight minutes to play in the opening period after getting stitches.
“It’s not the prettiest mouth anyway, so there’s nothing you can really do for it,” joked Wild teammate Marcus Foligno of Eriksson Ek’s return to the game.
The game was not yet two minutes old when gloves hit the ice and Foligno fought Philadelphia’s Nicolas Deslauriers in the neutral zone.
The scoreless first period ended with Minnesota killing the game’s first penalty. Through all the chaos, the Wild managed just three shots on goal in the opening period for the second game in a row.
Minnesota finally broke the deadlock early in the second via a pretty individual play by Tarasenko. First he knocked down a waist-high pass from Marcus Johansson at the blue line to keep play in the offensive zone. The puck went down low to Marco Rossi as Tarasenko drifted toward the net. Rossi’s centering pass landed perfectly on Tarasenko’s stick blade, and the veteran ripped a rising shot over the shoulder of Flyers goalie Dan Vladar.
“It’s unbelievable. You can tell he’s shot a lot of pucks in his days,” Foligno said. “He’s a big, strong guy and we’re hoping that he can get more chances like that.”
Philadelphia coach Rick Tocchet unsuccessfully challenged the play for offside, giving the Wild their first power play of the game. Minnesota controlled the play on that man advantage and on a second one a short time later, but failed to double the lead.
But where the power play has been quiet for the last few nights, the penalty killers have been spot-on. With Wild players going to the penalty box late in the first and second periods, Minnesota kept the Flyers off the board and kept the crowd out of the game by consistently icing the puck, and with Wallstedt smothering pucks in and around the crease.
It took a fortunate bounce for the Flyers to tie the game in the third period, when Owen Tippet swatted blindly at the puck from behind the Minnesota net, and it glanced off the back of Wallstedt’s leg, landing over the goal line.
“Obviously I was a little unfortunate on the goal,” Wallstedt said. “It’s a matter of details.”
Describing the play, Wallstedt said he failed to get the toe of his skate snug against the goalpost, leaving just enough room for the puck to slip through. He said 99 percent of the time, that’s a save he makes.
Hynes praised Wallstedt’s overall game, and criticized his team for the series of events that led to the Flyers tying goal.
“Puck decisions at key points in the arena, at key points in the game, one of them cost us the tying goal,” he said. “You have to play hard, you have to play smart. To me, these are the two lessons of the game.”
After the Wild just missed a chance to end the game in overtime with Brock Faber and Eriksson Ek on a 2-on-1 rush, Cates — who was a 2019 NCAA champion at Minnesota Duluth — fired a shot that beat Wallstedt on the goalie’s right side.
Vladar finished with 15 saves for the Flyers, who are 2-2-1 in their first season with Tocchet at the helm.
The Flyers make their only regular season visit to Minnesota on March 12 for a game at Grand Casino Arena. After a day off on Sunday, the Wild’s five-game road trip continues with a Monday night visit to Madison Square Garden for a meeting with the New York Rangers.
