Wild clinch playoff spot, setting stage for intense finish
The Minnesota Wild are back in the playoffs after securing their 98th point of the season in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday night.
It was nearly a two-point night for the Wild, who led 3-2 with 35 seconds left in the third period when Pavel Dorofeyev scored after Vegas pulled the goalie for a man advantage.
"We're going to play every game to get two points," Wild coach Dean Evason said. "That's what we're going to do. We're not focused on getting higher in the standings. We're focused on getting two points. We're going to talk about trying to stay as healthy as we possibly can when we get into the playoffs."
Dallas defeated Nashville 5-1, putting them and Minnesota in a tie atop the Central Division with 98 points. Colorado is two points behind with two games in hand. It sets the stage for what could be a fascinating final two weeks of the regular season.
Key games this week
Thursday will be a big night with Minnesota at Pittsburgh, Dallas hosting Philadelphia and Colorado on the road against San Jose. Colorado is actually in San Jose for games Tuesday and Thursday this week – and if they win Tuesday night the Wild, Stars and Avalanche will be in a three-way tie entering play Thursday.
That leads into Saturday as the Wild host St. Louis, Dallas is at home against Vegas and Colorado has a big road showdown against the Kings.
With only five games left the Wild still have a shot, albeit slim, to catch Vegas (103 points) for the No. 1 spot in the Western Conference. According to Tankathon, Vegas has the fourth-hardest remaining schedule in the NHL compared to the Wild having the sixth-easiest schedule.
If the playoffs started today, Minnesota would face Colorado in the first round of the playoffs.
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.