ST. LOUIS – A sliding pad save against the Blues’ Jordan Kyrou just seconds after the Wild capitalized shorthanded to snap out of their ho-hum second period was the highlight of Filip Gustavsson’s game and season — until it got downgraded by one of the rarest feats in hockey.
Minnesota Wild best St. Louis Blues 4-1 as Filip Gustavsson scores first goalie goal in franchise history
The Wild scored on the power play, shorthanded and even strength before Filip Gustavsson made history in the closing moments and an empty Blues net.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
October 16, 2024 at 5:45AM
Gustavsson drained a 164-foot empty-netter with 9 seconds to go to score the first goalie goal in Wild history, an appropriate finish to a hard-fought, 4-1 win over St. Louis on Tuesday night at Enterprise Center that was put in motion by Gustavsson’s accuracy in his own crease before he showcased his stickwork.
“It just laid perfect there on the ice,” Gustavsson said, “and I just try and shoot it as hard as I could.”
Trailing by two goals, the Blues pulled goaltender Jordan Binnington during a Wild power play and after Gustavsson caught a dump-in and dropped the puck to the ice, his shot soared in the air before bouncing into St. Louis territory and rolling into the vacant net.
“Should probably be [in] the power-play meetings now,” said Gustavsson, who boosted the Wild to a 2-for-5 showing.
This is the 18th goalie goal in NHL history and only the third on the power play; Gustavsson is only the 15th goalie to score.
He’s the first to capitalize since Pittsburgh’s Tristan Jarry on Nov. 30, 2023, and just the second Swedish-born netminder with a goal.
“Nice shot,” said Kirill Kaprizov, who pointed out Gustavsson now has the “same [amount of] goals like a lot of guys” on the team.
Before the first goalie goal he’d ever scored at any level, Gustavsson impressed with his 27 saves to lead the Wild into a much-needed three-day break a respectable 2-0-2.
Not only have the Wild yet to lose in regulation, but they also haven’t trailed in any period.
Gustavsson has set the tone: Through three games, Gustavsson has stopped 91 of 96 shots.
In front of him the Wild went with a less-is-more strategy on offense: They had only four shots in the first period against the Blues and just one in the second until the waning minutes of the period, but their 2-for-5 start – thanks to their special teams – gave the Wild all the cushion they’d need with Gustavsson so locked-in.
Ryan Hartman had the first goal on the power play 3 minutes, 50 seconds into the first period off a slick setup by Kirill Kaprizov, who chipped the puck around St. Louis’ Brayden Schenn at the Wild blue line before threading a backhand pass between a pair of Blues players for Hartman to skate in alone on Binnington (23 saves) and lift a shot over Binnington’s glove.
St. Louis had the edge in shots (4-0) to start the second period, with the Wild snapping a nearly 9-minute drought on the penalty kill when Marat Khusnutdinov sprung Jakub Lauko for a breakaway that Lauko converted at 7:52 for his first goal with the Wild and the team’s first shorthanded strike of the season.
“The only thing I was thinking about was that the guy behind me was pretty fast,” said Lauko, who had never had a shorthanded goal in the NHL before this. “So, I was like, ‘I need to look out for that.’ But it was just instinct.”
What made that penalty kill even more clutch was Gustavsson getting across in time to deny Kyrou, who had a goal later during the power play overturned by a quick whistle.
The Wild finished 2-for-2 on the penalty kill, their first perfect game.
“That was a big one,” coach John Hynes said of Gustavsson’s save on Kyrou after Lauko’s goal, which Hynes described as “a big momentum changer.”
A much more assertive version of the Wild returned for the third period.
Only 46 seconds after puck drop, they padded their lead when Marco Rossi pounced on a Mats Zuccarello pass that deflected to Rossi for his first goal.
The Blues spoiled Gustavsson’s shutout bid on a Mathieu Joseph shot with 9:50 remaining, but Gustavsson still made the night memorable by helping a shorthanded offense.
The Wild relied on 11 forwards and seven defensemen after captain Jared Spurgeon and center Joel Eriksson Ek didn’t join the team in St. Louis and winger Marcus Johansson was scratched.
Daemon Hunt made his season debut on defense, and Kaprizov was double-shifted; he logged a game-high 27:59, the third-highest ice time in a single regular-season game by a Wild forward.
Spurgeon is still considered day-to-day with a lower-body injury suffered Saturday in the 5-4 shootout loss to Seattle, and Hynes expects to know more on Spurgeon’s status when the Wild get back to Minnesota.
Eriksson Ek has a broken nose from an elbow he took to the face Saturday and was expected to return to action against the Blues, but the team didn’t want him to travel. Johansson, who played Sunday despite being a game-time decision, didn’t suit up on Tuesday; he collided with the Kraken’s Jordan Eberle over the weekend.
“I don’t think I do anything special out there,” Gustavsson said. “I don’t be flashy. Obviously, I make some bigger saves, but that’s usually when you’re out of position. I just try to be in the right position most of the time and make boring saves, and I think that’s been working very good so far.”
The ups and downs of recent days have a familiar feel. It’s not a bit like the heady stretch when they were the league’s hottest team, but “that’s just the NHL season.”
