They aren’t the Jets, Stars or Avalanche.
Wild cut down Predators quickly in overtime on Jared Spurgeon’s goal, tie for NHL lead
Kirill Kaprizov dropped off a pass for Spurgeon, and he ended the game a minute into the extra period.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
December 1, 2024 at 3:42AM
The Predators aren’t even the Predators of last season.
But a division win inside the top-heavy Central is still significant, so the Wild prevailing 3-2 in overtime against Nashville on Saturday night in front of a whiteout crowd at Xcel Energy Center shouldn’t soon be forgotten — especially since their third straight victory moved them into a tie for first in the NHL.
“It feels good,” Marcus Foligno said. “Obviously they’re still, despite their record, a really scary hockey team. So, to get a win against these guys is huge.”
Captain Jared Spurgeon broke a 2-2 tie only one minute into 3-on-3 action, burying a Kirill Kaprizov pass for his third goal in his past two games and fifth career overtime goal to tie for the third-most in Wild history.
“It was sort of a surprise to me,” Spurgeon said of the handoff from Kaprizov, “but such a great pass. I just tried to get it on net as soon as possible. Lucky it went in.”
Filip Gustavsson finished with 25 saves, and the goaltender improved to 11-4-3 with a league-best 2.05 goals-against average and .929 save percentage.
Like the Wild, the Predators played on Friday, but unlike the Wild, Nashville didn’t start a fresh goalie.
Juuse Saros was back in net after the Predators traded backup Scott Wedgewood to Colorado earlier in the day. The busy weekend, however, didn’t slow Saros, who was sharp early en route to 25 saves.
He denied 12 shots from the Wild before Declan Chisholm’s slapper inside the blue line sailed in with 1:03 left in the first period. The goal, Chisholm’s first of the season, capped off an impressive week for the sophomore defenseman, who played in all four games after being an occasional healthy scratch and was steady in his own end (most recently next to Spurgeon with Jonas Brodin injured).
But Nashville retaliated on the very next shift on Fedor Svechkov’s first NHL goal, a one-timer off a cross-seam pass at 19:39.
In the second period, the Predators moved ahead on the power play, with Ryan O’Reilly capitalizing on a slick between-the-legs deflection at 2:29.
Kaprizov answered back with his own redirect on a Wild power play, the winger tipping in a Marco Rossi feed at 8:24 for his team-leading 15th goal. The goal was also the 61st of Kaprizov’s career on the power play, lifting him past Mikko Koivu for second in Wild history; Zach Parise is first with 69 goals.
With 38 points, Kaprizov leads the NHL in scoring.
Overall, both teams went 1-for-3 on the power play.
Nashville had one of the more aggressive makeovers of the offseason, bringing in scorers Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault and Lakeville defenseman Brady Skjei, after a stunning second-half turnaround last season pushed the Predators into the playoffs.
But they got off to a terrible start under former Wild player and assistant coach Andrew Brunette, who had Darby Hendrickson join his staff after the longtime assistant was fired by the Wild in May. Not only did Nashville drop its first five games, but the team has had multiple skids since.
Still, the Predators didn’t play like the second-to-last team in the Central Division, especially in a tied third period.
“One mistake could have cost the game for both sides,” said Yakov Trenin, who started his career with Nashville and was with the team until a trade last season to Colorado. “Both teams were patient.”
Not until Kaprizov set up Spurgeon did the Wild finally overcome the Predators, this after a clutch late stop by Gustavsson on Zachary L’Heureux helped extend the action.
“That was a tight game,” said Spurgeon, who also assisted on Kaprizov’s goal and has four points over his past two games — including back-to-back game-winners for the first time in his career — after the defenseman scored twice to spearhead the Wild’s 3-2 comeback vs. Chicago on Friday afternoon. “Good teams that went back and forth at it. Chances both ways with goalies making big saves, so I’m happy with the outcome.”
The Wild are 4-2-2 vs. the Central Division, and the win matched idle Winnipeg’s 36 points that lead the NHL even though the Wild (16-4-4) lost to the Jets on Monday.
“It was a hard game to win,” coach John Hynes said. “Both teams probably deserved to get to overtime the way both teams had played. I just like the fact that we continue to grind out hard games, different games, find different ways to win, stay with it, the mental toughness, the physical toughness that we’re able to play with.
“That to me stands out and continues to stand out.”
Injuries are in play again, but the improved reaction to them — and to any adversity — has the team on a run toward franchise records.
