'Outcompeted, outskated, outexecuted': Wild win ugly in Chicago
Ugly wins are still wins and that's what the Minnesota Wild need as they strive to stay in the Western Conference playoff chase.
The second half of the season got off to an ugly, winning start for Minnesota as they dropped the puck at 8:52 p.m. in Chicago and left the ice around midnight with a 2-1 victory.
“It wasn’t pretty today,” Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson, who had 20 saves, said. “The second period was very bad for us. Then in the third, we just found a way to win today. It wasn’t pretty. It’s not the best. It wasn’t what we should do. We’ve got to learn from it tomorrow. Watch the video. Take the two points from this game and leave it there."
Vinni Letteiri assisted on both Wild goals in his return to the lineup after missing 15 games with a lower-body injury. Marcus Foligno scored the second goal, which proved to be the game-winner. The first went to Jacob Lucchini, who hadn't put a puck in the net since scoring his first NHL goal on Jan. 1, 2023.
The ugly win helps in the standings, but it didn't make head coach John Hynes feel any better about how his club performed.
“We had a good first period,” Hynes said. “Then we came out and we got outcompeted, outskated, outexecuted in the second period. You can’t win hockey games like that. We had passengers, particularly in the second period. In the third period, we were better. The good thing is we won the game, which is important, but we’ve got to be much better collectively as a group moving forward here.”
Up to 49 points, the Wild are five points behind St. Louis for the last wild card in the West. They're also chasing Arizona, Calgary, Seattle and Nashville.
Up next: Wild vs. Penguins, Friday at 7:10 p.m. CT.
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.