Jeff Misenti
The Vancouver Canucks lost 5-2 to the Minnesota Wild at Grand Casino Arena on Thursday night, with the game turning almost as soon as the second period began.
Matt Boldy and Ryan Hartman scored twice each, Kirill Kaprizov added a goal and an assist, and Filip Gustavsson made 30 saves as Minnesota clinched a playoff berth. Tom Willander and Jake DeBrusk scored for the Canucks.
According to NHL.com, the Wild came into this one rested after four days off. The Canucks played less than 24 hours after a wild 8-6 win over Colorado.
The Canucks started with life, the pushback was real, and for a few minutes it looked like the Canucks might steal one on tired legs against a much fresher team.
However, the Canucks could not find the same scoring punch this time, and Minnesota locked up a postseason spot for the second straight season and the sixth time in the past seven years.
The story of the game
At 8:32 of the first period, Boldy opened the scoring after Joel Eriksson Ek kept the puck alive at the blue line and helped create a 2-on-1. The Canucks answered late in the period. Willander tied it 1-1 at 16:00 when Teddy Blueger’s shot bounced hard off the end boards and landed right on his stick.
Willander now has 20 points, making him the first Canucks rookie defenseman to hit that mark since Quinn Hughes did it in 2019-20.
Shortly after, DeBrusk made it 2-1 on the power play just 42 seconds later by batting the puck out of the air after Filip Hronek hit the crossbar.
Then it flipped fast. Boldy tied the game only 23 seconds into the second period after Zeev Buium missed on a cross-ice pass at the far blue line, sending the Wild winger in alone for his 40th goal of the season.
A few minutes later, Kaprizov jumped an Elias Pettersson pass along the boards, gave it up to Mats Zuccarello, got it right back, and buried his own 40th goal from a tough angle to put Minnesota ahead 3-2.
Hartman put the game in a tougher spot early in the third, tipping in a Zuccarello shot from the edge of the crease to make it 4-2. He added the empty-netter late for his 20th of the season.
More hard to take stats
NHL.com highlighted that this was the first time in Wild history that two teammates reached the 40-goal mark in the same game. For Minnesota, it was one of those nights where the stars aligned. For the Canucks, it was another reminder of how small the margin gets once a good team grabs control.
Reuters reported Nikita Tolopilo stopped 34 shots, which tells you plenty about how much the Canucks had to absorb once Minnesota found its rhythm.
There was also the awkward subplot of Quinn Hughes facing the Canucks for the first time since the December trade. Hughes finished plus-4 with an assist, and his 46 assists in 43 games for the Wild are already a single-season team record for a defenseman. Beyond the defeat, the Hughes stats are hard for any Canucks fan to accept.
