Article: Wild Fall in Game 1 Against Golden Knights

[Thomas Williams]

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[MNCountryLife]

I thought the Wild played pretty well.  Vegas is a good team.  Faber got picked the first goal and Hertl made a fantastic shot.  2nd goal was a PK and the 3rd goal was on Bogo.  Looked like he tried to cheat to help out Zeev and he got bit for it.

[Imyourhuckleberry]

The PP goal against was a pretty wide open net, but the kill shot(game winner) was the breakaway goal by Howden. First team to 3 goals is likely to win each game in this series and Howden hit the top blocker side corner with speed.

Gus seemed to play pretty well. Both blocker side goals were well placed in the upper corner from fairly close in and he was screened on the fake shot/pass that resulted in the open shot. Since he didn't see the puck leave the stick, he didn't have the reaction to leave the path of that initial faked shot, and was beaten before he could really react to where the shot came from. He's often good at tracking the puck, but that one was tough.

Wild played with solid effort, but were beaten by a more talented team. Hartman was close to putting the Wild up early--around 5.5 minutes in. Defenseman seemed to knock the puck away to stop Hartman from burying the bouncing puck rebound. If the Wild get an early lead, the rest of the night might go a bit differently.

Also looked like the Knights might have deserved an interference call(nothing called) when they checked Hartman away from the play in open ice not long after his scoring opportunity was snuffed out.

Boldy, Kaprizov, and Hartman all had pretty strong nights. Eriksson Ek was doing alright until the high sticking call that gave the Knights the 2-1 lead.

 

[MNCountryLife]

Zeev made his mistakes and we got lucky they didn't cost us more... I wouldn't say he cost us anymore than what Merrill typically does.  But overall for a first NHL game ever I thought he played pretty well.  Boldy looked like he did in the 4 nations giving everything he had....He has that extra playoff gear.  Probably my favorite player on the team, Ek, did not step up.  Pains me to say that.  I'm a big Ek fan.  He seemed more focused on arguing and scrums than what was happening with the puck.  We need him focused on the puck.

[OldDutchChip]

I had decided to get my beauty sleep and called it a night after 2nd, but from what I did see -

MVP: Boldy, Trenin, Gus, Harty

I thought Boldy played great. And Trenin did what he could. The rest need to step up. 

LVP: Faber, Rossi, Spurge, Nyquist, Brazzy 

Side note- I’m hoping Yurov is our Dorofeev (that guy is good) Maybe they’ll take Rossi for him in the offseason? Haha

[M_Nels]

37 minutes ago, MNCountryLife said:

Probably my favorite player on the team, Ek, did not step up.

Had a hell of a night in the dot though.

[SkolWild73]

Good game for us with a couple of mistakes/bad breaks that cost us.  First one being Faber  knocking the puck down then losing it.  Bad play, but great shot.

Second was the pp goal.  Not sure how a penalty is not called on Vegas for tripping Freddy right off the face off.  
 

Posive notes.  We won 60% of faceoffs and every player was above 50%. If the hit stays were correct, we out hit them 54-29.  And Zeev got some experience.  Had some good and some bad.  
 

On to game two.

Edited 42 minutes ago by SkolWild73

[Pewterschmidt]

Can't imagine how stressful it would be for 19 yr old Zeev to play first NHL in a playoff series.  He showed some nerves and made some mistakes, but I'm encouraged by his skating.  He carried puck around his net and burst out of the D-zone with speed I haven't seen from our other D.  He also appears to be a shoot first mentality putting the puck on net vs. endless keep away some of our other players choose.  Going to be fun watching this kid evolve.

Edited 34 minutes ago by Pewterschmidt

[Will D. Ness]

I think rolling with Zeev was a gamble, but I guess we are in Vegas.  It could have paid off, but didn't.  He handled it well, but has a lot to learn on both ends.

I guess being thrown into that crucible can either crush you or teach you 2X as fast.  I'm thinking with Zeev it is the latter.