Wild Take Down Maple Leafs in OT With Strong Defensive Effort

The Minnesota Wild hosted the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday, November 3, for an early evening matchup. Filip Gustavsson was in net for his second straight game, and the lineup remained unchanged from their previous game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. There was a lot of end-to-end action for these two teams, with ample scoring chances and plenty of physicality. 

The Wild came up big in overtime after a miscue nearly led to a Maple Leafs breakaway. The Wild’s defense made it in time to turn the play around, and Matt Boldy scored to win the game 2-1. The Wild now move to 8-1-2, and the Maple Leafs record is now 6-5-2. 

Game Recap 

Like the Wild’s previous game, there was a lot of end-to-end action, and it took over the first half of the period before a goal was scored. After a review to see if it was kicked in and deemed good, the Wild’s Ryan Hartman recorded the game’s first goal. That gave his team quite the boost of momentum until they found themselves in penalty trouble. 

They killed off their first penalty with several blocked shots and block attempts, but their second kill did not end well. The Maple Leafs found an opening and took it as William Nylander ripped a one-timer past Gustavsson with under a minute to go to tie the game 1-1. The Wild did end up with a power play to end the first and start the second but couldn’t convert. 

Despite many chances and a lot of physicality, the game remained tied throughout the second period. The Wild did get a four-minute power play to end the period and went into the third with 1:32 left on that power play, but couldn’t convert. The third period had a very ticky-tacky beginning, with neither team able to hold onto the puck as it bounced from stick to stick. 

The game continued to go back and forth with some strong goaltending by both sides, and the third period ended tied at 1-1, and overtime was required to finish it out. It took about half of the overtime before a strong hustle by Jared Spurgeon to head off a possible Maple Leafs breakaway that Spurgeon then sent up the ice to a waiting Marco Rossi and Boldy. Rossi caught the pass and tipped it to Boldy, who beat the Maple Leafs goaltender to win it 2-1 for the Wild. 

The Wild will practice on Monday afternoon, November 4, before hosting the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday, November 5th, to finish their three-game homestand. The Toronto Maple Leafs will also be in action on Tuesday; they’ll play host to the Boston Bruins.