Amazing April continues as Wild rally to sink Kraken
If Minnesota Wild fans had one eye on the rink and one eye on the out-of-town scoreboard on Tuesday, it’s understandable. The home team in St. Paul did its part, rallying to beat the Seattle Kraken 5-2 in Minnesota’s second-to-last home game of the regular season.
And Minnesotans were rooting hard for the Calgary Flames to win deep in the heart of Texas. Calgary fell to Dallas 4-3 in overtime, assuring that the Stars will still be in second place in the Central Division when they meet head-to-head on Thursday. Trailing 1-0 and 2-1 in the first period, the Wild got goals from Matt Boldy, Nick Foligno, Vladimir Tarasenko, Marcus Johansson and Joel Eriksson Ek, improving to 4-0-0 in April and keeping pace with Dallas in the race for home ice in the playoffs.
Jesper Wallstedt had 25 saves for Minnesota, improving to 17-8-6 as a rookie goalie. The Kraken opened the scoring on what was technically a 5-on-5 goal, but the puck crossed the goal line a second or so after Wild forward Vladimir Tarasenko emerged from the penalty box. It was a shot by Seattle defender Brandon Montour that deflected off Wild forward Danila Yurov and past Wallstedt to give the visitors the early lead.
The Wild forged a tie on Boldy’s 42nd of the season after a 2-on-1 rush to the Seattle net. Kraken goalie Joey Daccord stopped Joel Eriksson Ek’s initial shot, with the rebound popping up and hitting Boldy in the chest, before deflecting off his stick and into the net. Officials on the ice immediately ruled no goal, but after a video review it was added to the scoreboard.
A short time after Seattle took a 2-1 lead, a hard hit by Marcus Foligno on Seattle defenseman Ryker Evans in the corner led to a neutral zone fight between Foligno and Kraken defender Jamie Oleksiak. After Foligno tied the game in the opening minute of the middle frame, it stayed that way when the Wild challenged a play that was originally ruled a Seattle goal. Kraken forward Freddy Gaudreau had his stick on Wallstedt’s glove hand, preventing the goalie from stopping a Jaden Schwartz.