Wild’s Gustavsson Earns Shutout in 1-0 Win Over Bruins

The Minnesota Wild and Boston Bruins met for the second time this season on Sunday afternoon, Mar. 2. Their first meeting was a 3-0 win for the Bruins in Boston back on Feb. 4. As far as injuries, the Bruins were without Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy, Hampus Lindholm, and Trent Frederic. Marchand and McAvoy were out with upper-body injuries, while Lindholm and Frederic dealt with lower-body injuries. 

For the Wild, Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Jonas Brodin were out due to injuries, and Ryan Hartman was still serving his suspension. They did get Zach Bogosian back after his recent injury, and the newly acquired Gustav Nyquist was also in the lineup. The goaltending matchup was between Jeremy Swayman for the Bruins and Filip Gustavsson in net for the Wild. 

The game started with back-and-forth action until the Wild scored their first goal in the second period. It continued to be back and forth but that ended up being the lone goal as the Wild shut out the Bruins 1-0. This moves the Wild’s record to 35-22-4 and the Bruins’ to 28-26-8.

Game Recap

The first period was tilted slightly in favor of the Bruins, but despite some decent chances for both sides, neither could get one past the goaltenders, and the score stayed 0-0. The second period started out almost the same as the first: a lot of back-and-forth but no results for the first few minutes. 

The Wild tallied the game’s first goal on a Marcus Johansson shot that Frédérick Gaudreau tipped to make it 1-0 five minutes into the second. At first, the goal was given to Johansson and then switched to Gaudreau, with Johansson and Mats Zuccarello given credit for the assists. That was the second period’s only goal, and the Wild took the 1-0 lead into the second intermission. 

There were some chances for both sides in the third period, but the Wild found a way to hold on, something they haven’t been able to do for some time, and came out with the 1-0 win. Gustavsson earned his fourth shutout of the season and the 10th of his career.

The Wild’s game against the Bruins was another quick one-game homestand, they’ll now head back on the road, this time it’ll be out west. They’ll face the Seattle Kraken on Tuesday evening, Mar. 4, and then they’ll take on the Vancouver Canucks on Friday, Mar. 7. The Bruins will head back home to host the Nashville Predators also on Tuesday.