The puck hit Carolina’s Stefan Noesen in the visor, but the play hurt the Wild more.
Lucky goal off Noesen’s visor seals Carolina comeback over Wild
Ryan Hartman set up two goals, but Carolina’s Stefan Noesen scored the tiebreaker with 9 minutes, 58 seconds remaining when a Jack Drury shot hit Noesen’s face before sailing into the Wild net.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
February 28, 2024 at 5:39AM
After giving up a costly last-minute goal, the Wild were stalled 3-2 by the Hurricanes on Tuesday at Xcel Energy Center when that carom off Noesen sailed into their net in the third period to complete Carolina’s comeback.
“Just such a lucky bounce on their part,” Wild defenseman Declan Chisholm said. “Sometimes those go in. That’s hockey.”
Although this was only the Wild’s second regulation loss in their last 10 games (7-2-1), it soured their playoff picture.
They’re six points back of the surging Predators, who occupy the last wild-card seed in the Western Conference after winning six in a row and will host the Wild on Thursday.
“We’ve got a lot of games left, and we can’t get down after one game,” Jonas Brodin said. “We’ve got a lot of important games coming up.”
This was also a telling tilt.
The Wild returned home after a weekend sweep at Edmonton and Seattle, and they looked like they had momentum on their side.
They used a bend-don’t-break strategy to weather early pressure from the Hurricanes before Connor Dewar delivered his first goal in 10 games at 10 minutes, 10 seconds of the first period.
Carolina responded at 15:26 when Jordan Staal backhanded in a loose puck that hit traffic in front of the net, but the Wild exited the period with a lead after Brodin’s point shot eluded goaltender Pyotr Kochetkov (28 saves) with 21 seconds to go. Ryan Hartman’s assist was his second of the period.
Since his return from the All-Star break, Brodin has scored five times, capitalizing in every other game he’s played.
“It was just lucky,” Brodin said, “but I’ve been trying to shoot more.”
Another last-minute goal happened in the second period, but this one went against the Wild.
Chisholm’s attempted dump-in hit Matt Boldy, and the Hurricanes stormed the other way before Andrei Svechnikov drained a five-hole shot with 25 seconds left.
“We just didn’t execute at that time,” coach John Hynes said. “It’s unfortunate because that probably was the difference in the game. You could probably live with the power-play goal: That’s a bounce. It goes off Noesen’s face. It goes in.
“But you lose a one-goal game, and you gifted them one goal.”
After the Wild blanked on their third power play of the night early in the third period, Carolina converted just as its second power play expired when Jack Drury’s shot clipped goalie Filip Gustavsson’s blocker before banking in off Noesen’s visor at 11 minutes.
Gustavsson totaled 25 saves, and the Wild’s top line didn’t create any offense, which snapped Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek’s eight-game point streaks.
“It’s the little details of things,” Hynes said before rehashing the goal late in the second period. “It’s the end of a long shift. We get to that area of the ice. Those are must-make plays that gotta go in. Then we came out in the third, I thought we still played well enough to win, and obviously, they get a bounce on the power play.
“So, to me, that’s really the lesson out of the game: It’s just continuing to recognize key situations in games, decisions that need to be made at certain times.”
After letting a 135-footer bounce in between the wickets early, Fleury steadied himself in a 5-3 victory.
