The Vegas Golden Knights feel good about the direction of their offense.
The Minnesota Wild are happy with how they are coming together to play stout defense.
Something will have to give when the Golden Knights face off against the Wild on Sunday evening in St. Paul, Minn. Both teams will play on short rest after earning victories Saturday.
Vegas is coming off a 4-1 win on the road against the St. Louis Blues. Braeden Bowman scored his first career goal for the Golden Knights, who snapped a four-game losing streak.
“It’s really a dream come true,” Bowman said. “The guys have been awesome.”
Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy hopes to see another strong effort on offense when his team travels to Minnesota.
“The offense is getting spread out,” Cassidy said. “Usually when that happens, good things will happen as well because that’s kind of been our trademark when we go well — everyone contributes.”
The Wild also have returned to their roots, albeit as a defensive-minded team rather than a spread-offense organization.
Minnesota is coming off a 2-0 shutout win at home against the Anaheim Ducks. The Wild have won three of their past four contests and five of their past seven (5-1-1).
Wild coach John Hynes said the key to tough defense was staying disciplined.
“It’s not an area of the game where you’re going to play on instincts, right?” Hynes said. “When you’re in your own end, … that’s an area where you can’t go rogue.
“You need to make sure that it’s five guys doing their job and committing, and then I think we’ve done a little bit better job as of late here with our up-ice structure, not giving teams easy offense to put us on our heels.”
Jesper Wallstedt earned the shutout as the Wild’s goaltender on Saturday, but he said that the team’s skaters deserved credit for the result.
“Obviously, keeping goals low is a team result,” he said. “It’s something we’re doing as a team. If we can limit scoring chances and (are) blocking shots and taking away sticks and boxing out, obviously my record will look good. But at the end of the day, it’s a team result.
“We’re doing it all together.”
The Wild likely will turn to Filip Gustavsson in net one night after Wallstedt earned the start. Gustavsson is 4-7-2 with a 3.09 goals-against average and an .896 save percentage this season, and he is 1-3-1 with a 2.76 GAA and a .911 save percentage in six career games against the Golden Knights.
Carl Lindbom could get the start for Vegas one night after Akira Schmid started in goal.
The 22-year-old Lindbom is 0-3-1 with a 3.29 GAA and an .869 save percentage in four starts in his rookie season. He has yet to face Minnesota in his career.
Minnesota is 5-3-3 at home this season. Vegas is 4-1-2 on the road.
Mats Zuccarello played Saturday night for the Wild despite an illness. His status is uncertain for playing in his second game in as many nights.
“He was on IVs prior to the game,” Hynes said. “I give him a lot of credit to gut it out to play.”
-Field Level Media
