In this opening month where nothing has come easy for the Minnesota Wild, an early lead Thursday slipped away, and the hole they have dug in October got just a little deeper.
Versus a better-than-expected Pittsburgh team loaded with weapons, the Wild managed just one goal and saw the Penguins take over the game in the third period. Pittsburgh’s 4-1 win was the fifth consecutive loss for a Wild team that last won on Oct. 20 against the Rangers in New York.
With the Penguins’ scorers coming at him in waves, Minnesota goalie Filip Gustavsson made 30 saves in the loss.
Kirill Kaprizov scored a rare early goal for the Wild, but their previously potent power play provided no relief as they went 0 for 4 with the man advantage and fell to 3-6-3 to close out October.
As he searches for answers for his struggling team, Wild coach John Hynes complimented roughly one-third of his team’s effort.
“I think the first period was a really good start and it was a good 20 minutes,” Hynes said. “I thought in the second we got outskated, we got outcompeted, we didn’t win a lot of faceoffs. I think we never started with the puck. Our execution wasn’t great and we fed their momentum, and then they were the better team in the second half.”
For the game, Pittsburgh won 63% of the faceoffs, to just 37% for Minnesota.
With the game tied 1-1 in the third, Pittsburgh got goals from Bryan Rust and Ben Kindel just 61 seconds apart. The Penguins are now 6-0-2 in their last eight games.
The Wild took the first lead midway through the opening period when Kaprizov fought off a check in front of the net and redirected a cross-ice pass by Marcus Johansson. It was Kaprizov’s team-leading seventh goal of the season, and extended his points streak to four games.
It also marked the first time since a 2-1 overtime loss in Philadelphia on Oct. 18 that Minnesota scored the first goal of a game.
The Penguins appeared to have tied the game, briefly, when Evgeni Malkin slipped a shot past the goalie from the low slot. But after review, officials determined that contact made by Pittsburgh forward Justin Brazeau on Gustavsson before the shot went in constituted goaltender interference, and they ruled no goal. Pittsburgh challenged the call, but after review the call was upheld, giving the Wild their first power play of the night.
Minnesota, which entered the game with the top power play in the NHL, got two man advantages in the first but failed to build on their lead. Hynes said the man advantage struggles began when the puck was dropped.
“Tonight we got outcompeted. I thought their penalty kill outcompeted our power play,” he said. “It starts in the faceoff circle. When our power play is at its best, it’s relentless on the puck. It’s recoveries. It’s a shot mentality…We didn’t have that.”
Pittsburgh survived a surge by the Wild and tied the game for real early in the second when defenseman Ryan Shea’s long-range shot through a crowd found the back of the net.
“The second period’s got to be a lot better. I thought we got a little bit lost in our game where, for some reason, we like to spread it out and play like they did, and that’s not us,” Wild winger Marcus Foligno said. “The first period was good and we’re up 1-0. Frustrating.”
The Wild bench went down a man a short time later when a shot by Penguins defenseman Erik Karlsson hit Minnesota center Danila Yurov below the belt. Yurov crumpled to the ice immediately and had to be helped to the locker room. He returned to the game midway through the middle frame.
The Penguins, who have not qualified for the NHL playoffs since 2022, are off the a 8-2-2 start. Minnesota, which had the worst penalty-kill numbers in the league entering the game, surrendered a goal on Pittsburgh’s first power play of the game.
“It’s getting worse,” Gustavsson said of the Minnesota penalty kill, which is hovering around 60% for the season. “We’ve got to figure something out.”
Gustavsson came to the bench for an extra attacker with just under three minutes to play, but Pittsburgh’s Anthony Mantha hit a shot into the empty net from beyond the far blue line.
Tristan Jarry had 26 saves for the Penguins in their lone regular season visit to Minnesota. The Wild play in Pittsburgh on Nov. 21.
Up next is the fifth game of the Wild’s current six-game homestand when they host the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday evening at 6 p.m. The Wild are 1-3-2 at home this season.
Briefly
Pittsburgh’s second shot on goal of the game was a slapper from the blue line delivered by defenseman Matt Dumba, who was playing in his fifth game for the Penguins. Dumba, 31, was the Wild’s first round pick, seventh overall, in the 2012 NHL Draft. He spent his first 10 seasons with the Wild and has skated for Arizona, Tampa Bay, Dallas and now Pittsburgh since leaving Minnesota in 2023.
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