Bold-y move: Wild pull goalie in overtime and stun Nashville
Pulling the goalie in a 3-3 game in overtime? Nobody does it, but coach John Hynes made the bold move Sunday in St. Paul and it immediately paid off as Mats Zuccarello slid a pass through traffic and Matt Boldy one-timed a rocket into the goal for a 4-3 win over the Nashville Predators.
JUST LIKE THAT MATT 🚨🚨🚨 OT WINNER#mnwild pic.twitter.com/fIN0aTQQA6
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) March 10, 2024
How risky was pulling Marc-Andre Fleury in overtime? NHL rules stipulate that a team that pulls the goalie for an extra attacker and winds up losing on an empty-net goal forfeits the point they get for simply getting to overtime.
But the move paid off and gave the Wild (31-27-7) two critical points, giving them 69 for the season with 17 games to go. They're six points behind Vegas for the second wild card in the Western Conference playoff race and nine behind Nashville – the Predators are riding a 12-game points streak – for the first wild card.
Jonas Brodin got the scoring started just over a minute after Marcus Foligno, in his second game back since aggravating a groin injury a month ago, dropped the gloves and delivered a beating to Nashville’s Michael McCarron.
Foligno and McCarron going AT IT right off the draw 🥊 pic.twitter.com/dVAHxQgPQ8
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) March 10, 2024
The tone-setting start didn’t last long as the Predators tied the game 1-1 at the 9:00 mark of the opening period on a goal by Mark Jankowski and later took a 2-1 lead on Luke Evangelista's 14th goal of the season early in the second period.
Trailing 2-1, Kirill Kaprizov stayed hot by netting the equalizer on the power play with 1:18 left in the second period. Kaprizov has 11 goals in his last 11 games.
Kirill Kaprizov with a greasy one on the PP. 2-2 #mnwild pic.twitter.com/LlCzLjyar5
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) March 10, 2024
The game stayed tied until Ryan Hartman jumped a pass like a cornerback jumping a route in the NFL and scored on a breakaway with 7:32 to go in the game.
Hartzy unassisted is craaazyyy 🤯#mnwild pic.twitter.com/QT0clEDXlS
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) March 10, 2024
A holding penalty on Joel Eriksson Ek with 2:47 to play put the Predators on the power play with a chance to tie the game and they didn't waste the opportunity as Ryan O'Reilly's wrist shot through traffic got by Marc-Andre Fleury with 2:02 to play.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.