The Minnesota Wild have stepped into uncharted territory as they prepare to finish a three-game road trip against the Calgary Flames on Saturday afternoon.
The Wild are off to the hottest start in franchise history with a 13-3-3 record through 19 games. A huge part of that success is a league-best 9-1-2 road mark, buoyed by an impressive 5-3 victory over the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday.
“Great road game … again,” forward Marcus Johansson told The Athletic. “Everyone’s pulling their weight. I feel like we’re playing real solid all over the ice.”
The Wild, who trail only the Winnipeg Jets in points, are led by first-liners Matt Boldy and Kirill Kaprizov, both of whom are riding point-scoring streaks. The Edmonton victory also showed their resiliency, recovering from an early deficit and shaking off two disallowed goals.
“The big thing I like is the mental maturity that we’re now starting to show — that focus, how to play with the lead, what happens when bad things happen in the game, the discipline within your structure, the penalty discipline,” coach John Hynes said. “All those types of little things, I think, are becoming more and more automatic within the group.”
Kaprizov is not only riding a seven-game point streak in which he’s collected 13 points (six goals, seven assists) but he also is enjoying a franchise-record 11-game road point streak with 24 points (eight goals, 16 assists) in that span. Boldy is on a five-game run with three goals and two assists.
The Flames are also feeling good about themselves these days. Calgary, pegged to be a bottom-feeder prior to the season, is in second in the Pacific Division and riding a three-game winning streak extended by a 3-2 home victory over the New York Rangers on Thursday.
The Flames fired a season-high 49 shots on goal — 20 in the first period.
“Probably one of the best first periods all year, I think. We were all over them,” forward Jonathan Huberdeau said. “Obviously, it’s tough to play like that for 60 minutes, but I think we did a pretty good job and came up with another win.”
The Flames are succeeding despite being in the bottom third of the league offensively. In fact, Calgary has scored three or fewer goals in 17 consecutive games.
A huge key has been outstanding goaltending, especially from rookie Dustin Wolf, who has posted a 5-0-1 record in his last six starts and surrendered 10 goals in those outings.
Another aspect has been the team’s ability to control play with a relentless style.
“We’ve established an identity, which is big for our group,” defenseman MacKenzie Weegar said. “Coming into the Saddledome now, it’s hard to play against our group. We’ve got forwards tracking and checking hard, ‘D’ are in your face, goalies are kicking. We have an identity and I love to see it. That first period, we just kept comin’ and comin’ and I think it wore down on that team.”
–Field Level Media
