Things looked like they were dangerously close to going off the rails for the Wild on Saturday night at Xcel Energy Center.
Making his first start since a 9-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues more than a week ago, Wild goaltender Kaapo Kahkonen allowed a soft goal 10 minutes into the game against the San Jose Sharks.
It was a seemingly harmless wrist shot from former Wild defenseman Brent Burns, and it absolutely should’ve been stopped. Instead, the Wild found themselves chasing the game with about 50 minutes left in regulation.
Luckily for Kahkonen, that was more than enough time for his teammates to pick him up, and the Wild ultimately ran away with a 5-2 win thanks to an offensive explosion up front. Mats Zuccarello, Joel Eriksson Ek, Zach Parise, Kirill Kaprizov and Nico Sturm all scored a goal, and Kahkonen finished with 26 saves.
After the shot from Burns found the back of the net midway through the first period, the Wild responded with a flurry to seize control. It started with a slick goal from Zuccarello on the power play, continued with a wonky goal from Eriksson Ek a mere 36 seconds later and ended with a pretty goal from Parise exactly 36 seconds after that.
To recap, in a span of 1 minute, 12 seconds, the Wild turned a one-goal deficit into a two-goal lead, and they never looked back.
Not that coach Dean Evason was ever concerned about Kahkonen’s game. He still had a lot of confidence in him despite the soft goal.
“He came right over to the bench and goes, ‘That’s my bad goal for the night,’ ” Evason said. “It didn’t rattle him. He just went about his business.”
Nonetheless, that cushion did seem to take the edge off, and Kahkonen looked more comfortable as the game progressed. Though he wasn’t necessarily the sharpest he’s been this season, Kahkonen’s confidence does appear to be on the upswing.
“A couple of times there I felt like I was doing almost too much trying to battle,” Kahkonen said. “I think that was the way for me to come back from that embarrassment last time in St. Louis. Just try to battle and fight for every single puck.”
It helped that Kahkonen’s teammates battled and fought for every puck in front of him. They also scored more than enough goals to boot.
With the game there for the taking early in the second period, Kaprizov netted what might as well have been the dagger. He pilfered the puck after some sloppy play by the Sharks in their own zone, then hammered home a cross-ice pass from Zuccarello.
For good measure, Sturm scored an incredible wraparound goal late in the second period, using his speed to break free before skillfully sliding the puck past goaltender Martin Jones. Perhaps trying to salvage the game, the Sharks challenged for goaltender interference.
“As it was on the jumbo, I was like, ‘There’s no way in (heck) they’re going to call that back,’ ” Sturm said. “I’m not really sure what they were looking at. I thought it was pretty far outside the crease there.”
That made the third period more or less a formality, and while the Sharks got a goal from Joel Kellman to finalize the score, the Wild coasted the rest of the way with the end result never in doubt.
“It was a great team effort by everybody up and down our lineup,” Kahkonen said. “They were scoring great goals and playing great defense in front. Just making it really easy for me.”
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April 18, 2021 at 09:33AM
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Wild use offensive explosion to complete sweep of Sharks - TwinCities.com-Pioneer Press
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