Gustavsson makes 32 saves, Wild hold off Maple Leafs
Filip Gustavsson made 32 saves for the Minnesota Wild in a 3-1 win against the Toronto Maple Leafs at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday.
Marat Khusnutdinov, Jared Spurgeon and Marcus Foligno scored for the Wild (30-17-4), who are 2-2-0 in their past four games. Minnesota improved to 19-5-3 on the road, leading the NHL in road wins and matching their total number of road wins all of last season.
“We had really strong work ethic,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “I thought our competitive level was high, but we played fast in the way that we skated, I think, in the way that we moved the puck. And then I thought our attention to detail tonight, all night was very good.”
William Nylander scored and Joseph Woll made 22 saves for the Maple Leafs (30-19-2), who have lost three in a row, scoring only three times during the losing streak.
“I think we can do a better job of getting on the inside but there have been opportunities there, just bearing down on it,” Toronto captain Auston Matthews said. “Sometimes that’s the way it goes, sometimes you get in these periods of segments where it’s just you are fighting it a little bit and the puck is not bouncing your way. For us, it’s just sticking with it, continuing to push ourselves to be better and continue to create opportunities by getting more guys on the inside.”
The Wild went up 1-0 at 7:07 of the first period when Jakub Lauko won a puck battle behind the net against Morgan Rielly and centered to Khusnutdinov, who one-timed a shot from the slot between Woll’s pads. It was his second goal of the season in his 48th game.
“Legs were going good for us early which always helps, a couple shifts in their end helps the confidence,” Wild forward Devin Shore, who earned a second assist on the goal, said. “We were hunting down pucks and getting to the net. We just had a good work ethic and it went from there. I think we do a lot of that stuff most nights but the hockey gods gave us a couple bounces, got the pucks in the right spots and that helps you build your game, especially in the first.”
Spurgeon made it 2-0 at 15:35 when his shot from the point on the power play was deflected by Auston Matthews in the slot.
“We gave up the first goal, we have to win that battle down there below our goal line,” Toronto coach Craig Berube said. “We had coverage in front but just got through us, we have to be better there. Their power-play goal, we tipped the puck in. That’s a play there where we have to block that shot, not with your stick, so we made a couple mistakes but we battled. We had a lot of shot attempts and they blocked a lot of shots so in the end we have to do a better job of getting those through.”
Nylander had a chance to cut into the lead at 11:36 of the second period but hit the goal post on a breakaway.
Nylander did cut it to 2-1 at 8:16 of the third period when he redirected a pass in the slot from Pontus Holmberg past Gustavsson’s glove.
Gustavsson kept it at 2-1 at 12:30 when he stopped Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who had a clear shot from the left face-off dot.
“He’s just super calm back there,” Nylander said of Gustavsson, who he will be teammates with for Sweden at the upcoming 4 Nations Face-Off. “Just a great Swedish goalie. It’s too bad I didn’t score on him on the breakaway but I got one past him at least.”
Foligno scored into an empty net with 15 seconds remaining for the 3-1 final. The goal extended his goal streak to three games, the fourth time in his career he has done so.
The Maple Leafs have lost six of their past nine games in regulation and have scored one goal or less in five of their past eight.
“We’re all striving to be the best we can be and when it’s not going your way, you do everything you can to change that and it starts with hard work and being a good teammate and committing to what’s going on and just staying focused,” Rielly said.
The Wild were without forward Kirill Kaprizov, who requires surgery for a lower-body injury and will be out at least four weeks.
“More often than not, we play a really strong team game,” Hynes said. “Tonight, we played a very structured game. And then I thought that the contributions throughout the lineup in the way that we played now we had depth scoring, but I also think that those guys brought energy to the team. I think that the competitive level throughout the lineup was where it needs to be.”
