Jesper Wallstedt stopped all 32 shots he faced en route to his fourth shutout over his past six starts as the Minnesota Wild earned a 1-0 road win over the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday.
The NHL’s hottest goaltender earned his seventh straight win while extending the Wild’s point streak to 12 games (10-0-2).
Three days after the Oilers shut out the Seattle Kraken, Wallstedt and the Wild gave Edmonton a taste of their own medicine as they were unable to find the scoresheet for the first time all season.
Jonas Brodin tallied the game’s lone goal at 13:11 of the first period. The Minnesota defenseman blasted a slap shot past Edmonton goalie Stuart Skinner (23 saves).
Brodin stepped in and one-timed a won faceoff by Nico Sturm, not long after the Wild were unable to capitalize on the game’s opening power play.
The Oilers were on the man advantage with 13:02 left in the second period when Wallstedt robbed Zach Hyman.
Hyman took a pass out front of the net and made a quick move to the backhand, only for the red-hot goaltender to kick out his pad to deny the possible game-tying goal.
With 9:35 remaining in the second, Evan Bouchard hooked up with Leon Draisaitl for a give-and-go, but the Oilers’ top defenseman soared his shot over the net.
With just under five minutes left in the middle frame, Draisaitl came storming down on a 3-on-2 and handed it off to Andrew Mangiapane, but once again Wallstedt stepped up and turned away another high-quality chance.
Edmonton star Connor McDavid finally recorded his first shot on goal with 6:43 left in the contest, but Wallstedt was once again up to the task.
Minnesota’s Matt Boldy took a penalty with 40 seconds left in the game, but the Oilers were unable to find some late-game heroics.
Draisaitl saw his eight-game point streak (five goals, eight assists) come to an end.
–Field Level Media
