3 Takeaways From the Wild’s 5-2 Win Over the Kraken

The Minnesota Wild returned home from a quick road trip to host the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday evening, Apr. 7. They came into the game on a three-game win streak with wins over the Vancouver Canucks at home and then back-to-back wins over the Ottawa Senators and Detroit Red Wings, and they looked to extend that streak on home ice. 

Their injury list remained the same as over the weekend, with Zach Bogosian being the lone injury. The one switch they did make to the lineup was that they brought in Bobby Brink, and Nick Foligno came out. Jesper Wallstedt was in the net, and the game started out in favor of the Kraken, but the Wild pushed back and got the win. In this article, we’ll look at a few takeaways, starting with their depth showing up.

Wild’s Depth Continues to Show Up 

The Wild’s stars have been doing what they need to do the last couple of weeks, but so has the Wild’s bottom six. Matt Boldy got the scoring started against the Kraken with his 42nd goal of the season, but it was Marcus Foligno and Vladimir Tarasenko who kept it going. Foligno showed his fighting skills in the first and his scoring in the second as he found a way around the defense and beat the Kraken’s Joey Daccord to tie the game up 2-2 just 38 seconds into the period. 

Tarasenko’s goal was a bit more unorthodox as Daccord thought he made the save, but the puck squeezed through and was sitting in the crease behind him, where Tarasenko snatched it and scored to give the Wild their first lead of the game. In the end, it doesn’t matter who scored as long as the team gets the win, but it’s always good to see the bottom six contributing because in the playoffs, it’s a whole team effort.

“Yeah, I would agree, I think the Ek (Eriksson Ek) line and Hartman’s line have played very well the last four the way that they need to and they’re threatening I think obviously Vladdy’s (Tarasenko) been playing really well down the stretch here and you know Moose (Foligno) getting it, I think that’s what you need right? Is you need to be able to have the guys that are supposed to score, score and produce but then I think as it goes through you want to get some action from your defensemen but then I think the depth up front has certainly helped that,” said head coach John Hynes in his postgame press conference about having three lines that can score going into the postseason.