The Minnesota Wild and Seattle Kraken met for the third time this season and the second in Minnesota on Wednesday night, Mar. 19. The series was split 1-1, with each team winning their respective road game. The Wild were still without their main three, Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Jonas Brodin, but also added Marcus Foligno before their last game due to an upper-body that also kept him out against the Kraken, and Marcus Johansson was added due to illness. They also lost Marco Rossi to a lower-body injury towards the end of the first period after getting hit by a Matt Boldy shot.
Related: 3 Takeaways From the Wild’s Win Over the Kings
Unlike the Wild, the Kraken were lucky enough to have no injuries reported until the third period when it was announced that Chandler Stephenson would not return to the game. The goaltending matchup was Filip Gustavsson for the Wild and Philipp Grubauer for the Kraken. The game started in the Wild’s favor and stayed that way all night for them to secure the 4-0 win. This moved the Wild’s record to 39-25-5 and the Kraken to 30-35-5.
Game Recap
The Wild, a team that has had scoring troubles recently, got on the board not once but three times in the first period. Ryan Hartman recorded the first goal with the assistance of Zach Bogosian and Vinnie Hinostroza. Matt Boldy, unassisted, tallied the second goal as he caught a Kraken pass and shot it past Grubauer. The third and final goal of the period went to Liam Öhgren; Frédérick Gaudreau and Gustav Nyquist assisted him to end the period with the lead.
The second period had some close calls for both teams, but neither found the back of the net, and the score remained 3-0 in favor of the Wild. There was one goal in the third, and that was an empty net for Boldy, that was his second of the game, and he secured the 4-0 victory for his team and the shutout for Gustavsson.
The Wild have one final game on this homestand that will take place on Saturday afternoon, Mar. 21 as they host the Buffalo Sabres. The Kraken will remain on the road as they head northwest to face the Edmonton Oilers also on Saturday.
