1. What goes around, comes around
The Wild has made a habit of executing in 6-on-5 situations this season, scoring an NHL-high 17 goals with the extra attacker and earning itself at least 10 points in the standings, thanks to that end-of-game situational play.
On Friday night, it went the other direction.
With the Wild leading 2-1 late with under a minute to play in regulation, it was the Blue Jackets who capitalized with the extra man, pulling goaltender Elvis Merlizkins a minute earlier for a 6-on-5 advantage.
With 32 seconds left in regulation, Zach Werenski let fly a shot from the point that may or may not have deflected off the abundance of traffic in front of Kaapo Kahkonen, hitting the back bar in the net and tying the score at 2-2.
"Not that we deserved better, but we've done this to a lot of teams too. What goes around comes around sometimes," said Wild coach Dean Evason. "They kept pushing and got a break at the end. We make a mistake obviously and it ends up in our net. But we liked everything. Probably the first six minutes was theirs. After that, we thought we played real well."
Evason said before the game on Friday night the Wild needed to learn something from its performance last Friday night in Buffalo, a game where Minnesota got way too loose in its defensive zone and followed up a win the previous night with a disappointing loss in game two of a back-to-back.
Following yet another high-scoring win on the front half of consecutive games, Minnesota was much tighter and better defensively this time around, surrendering few quality scoring chances and managing the game more efficiently Saturday night.
Had it held out another half a minute or so, it would have maintained a perfect record against the Metropolitan Division. Instead, it will settle for three of four points on the trip and a 10-0-1 record versus the Metro.
Video: Mats Zuccarello postgame at Columbus
"I thought we played a good game and sometimes you lose those games. That's the NHL," said Wild forward Mats Zuccarello. "Some games we won that the other team felt they should win, so that evens out. But obviously it's tougher to accept the loss when you feel like you should have won and played good.
"If you didn't show up and didn't play well and you lose, you deserve it. Credit to them, they stick with it and got one in there and got two points."
The game actually started inauspiciously for the Wild, as it began a parade to the penalty box in the second half of the first period.
Columbus capitalized, taking the lead on a power-play goal by Yegor Chinakhov 13:31 into the game to grab a 1-0 advantage.
Minnesota killed a minor before Jordan Greenway was tagged for a double minor for high sticking, and the Wild looked like it would face four minutes of being shorthanded.
But Connor Dewar turned the tide of the game early in the double minor, getting in on the forecheck, killing time and drawing a penalty of his own. A few moments later, the Jackets took another penalty, and what was a Wild penalty kill turned into a 4-on-3 Wild power play.
Dewar, back in the lineup after a couple of healthy scratches, was effective in his shifts and his tenacious forecheck absolutely flipped momentum.
Video: MIN@CBJ: Kaprizov lasers in game-tying PPG
"Real good kills obviously holding down there. Drew a penalty. He played very well," Evason said. "That line all the forwards played well. Everybody played well. It'd be hard-pressed to say somebody didn't play well in a back-to-back hockey game. Dewar and Dewar's line was real good."
Sure enough, 16 seconds into the rare man-advantage, Kirill Kaprizov rifled a shot under the crossbar to tie the game with 26 seconds left in the first period.
A relatively tame second turned positive for Minnesota when Zuccarello deflected Jared Spurgeon's point shot, giving the Wild its first lead of the game at 2-1.
It would stay that way until the final minute of regulation. Minnesota was unable to capitalize on a handful of power-play chances late in the game, where one goal likely would have sealed the deal.
Video: Dean Evason postgame at Columbus
"The power play needs to score in that situation. That puts the game away," Evason said. "We got cute. We were throwing sauce passes. Just stay the course. Everything else we do the same things and we get on the power play and it's like all of a sudden we're going to reinvent the wheel.
"Just stay with it. Do what we've done the last couple of games, simple. That was the difference as far as our goal scoring. That was the difference tonight."
2. Sixty for Zuccy
The two-point night for Zuccarello bumped his season point total to 60 on the year, just one shy of his career high set in 2015-16, when he skated for the New York Rangers.
Zuccarello's 41 assists are nine shy of Pierre-Marc Bouchard's single-season club record of 50, although he'll have company chasing down that mark ... Kaprizov has 43 assists this season. The 41 helpers are the second-most he's had in a season in his career and three shy of his own personal high.
His goal was his 19th and leaves him just one short of his second career 20-goal campaign.
So what's been the key?
Video: MIN@CBJ: Zuccarello tips in go-ahead goal
"Teammates. Linemates. Kirill and Hartsy and me got some chemistry this year. Getting older, learn to keep yourself positive even in tough stretches. Just trying to do the right things," Zuccarello said. "Obviously when the team does well you feed off of that. The confidence is high. I haven't really thought about it much. The last couple of weeks have been tough. I don't think we've played our best hockey. But the last couple of games it's coming back to it."
Speaking of Kaprizov, he became the seventh player in Wild history to reach the 30-goal plateau and the first since Eric Staal and Jason Zucker did it in 2017-18.
Kaprizov has tallied at least a point in eight consecutive contests, scoring seven goals and 11 points during his latest point streak. The eight-game span also ties a career long set earlier this season.
3. Home is where the heart is
After a wonky schedule the past few weeks, mixing COVID-19 makeup games with previously scheduled contests, the Wild will finally see a little bit of stability beginning Sunday night when it returns home for the rest of the month of March and begins a franchise record nine-game homestand with a contest against the Nashville Predators.
Minnesota really has piled up the miles lately, returning from the All-Star break in early February by making a pair of trips to Winnipeg eight days apart (with two home games in between), heading home for a single game ahead of a week-long trip to Canada that spanned Edmonton to Ottawa to Toronto and back to Calgary. A single game in St. Paul was a prelude to back-to-backs last week in Philadelphia and Buffalo, followed by two home games and another back-to-back this week in Detroit and Columbus.
Video: Kaapo Kähkönen postgame at Columbus
"We want to establish our building, we want to make it a hard place to come play and that's the style we've gotta play so that we get most of those points," Kahkonen said. "They're crucial this time of the year obviously, everyone is pushing for the playoffs, it's going to get tighter and tighter, so it's huge."
Minnesota won't hit the road again until early April, when it begins a four-game stretch away from home on April 2 in Carolina. Games in Washington, Nashville and St. Louis follow.
Minnesota has more games on its upcoming homestand (nine) than it does road games the rest of the season (eight), while also mixing in eight more games in St. Paul in the month of April.
No team in the NHL has played more road games and has more games at home remaining than the Wild, who are in a strong position to make up some of the recent ground it has lost.
"This is a big stretch for us. On home ice we should take command and come out flying," Zuccarello said. "We love playing at home. We've been good at home. Just have to keep that going. It was a good game for us today. We've got to keep building on that. If we play games like this we're going to win more than we're going to lose. Just have to keep it up."
The homestand will begin on a high note, of course, as the Wild will be retiring longtime former captain Mikko Koivu's number before the game a ceremony that begins at 5 p.m. sharp and will be televised on Bally Sports North and broadcast on the Wild Radio Network.
"It's always nice to be at home," Evason said. "We've talked about it a lot what our fans have given us this year it's been phenomenal and we look forward to that energy that they're going to give us each and every night."
Loose pucks
- Jonas Brodin skated in his 656th career game on Friday night, tying Ryan Suter for fourth-most in Wild history (Mikko Koivu, Spurgeon, Nick Schultz)
- Six of Kaprizov's 30 goals have come on the power play
- Kevin Fiala assisted on Kaprizov's goal, pushing his point streak to six games. Fiala has 16 points in his past 11 games and is one point shy of tying his career high (54 points, 2019-20)
- Zuccarello became just the 14th Wild player to tally at least 60 points in a season
- Spurgeon has five assists over the past five contests and reached 20 assists in a season for the seventh time in his NHL career
- Ryan Hartman now has 20 assists, tying his career best
- Kahkonen finished with 26 saves
- Jake Bean and Max Domi had assists for the Blue Jackets
- Merzlikins stopped 36 of 38 shots for Columbus
Dan's three stars
1. Mats Zuccarello
2. Jared Spurgeon
3. Connor Dewar
Highlights
Video: MIN Recap: Kaprizov scores 30th goal in SO loss
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