The Minnesota Wild they must have paid the bills, because if you haven’t noticed, the electricity has come back the last month.
A game of strength, ie.
After battling a men’s advantage, Minnesota has found its way starting with a March 10 home game against Vegas.
In 15 games played between March 10 and April 7, Wild has thrown 13 pucks into the net in 48 power-play opportunities – a conversion rate of 27.1%, the fifth place in the NHL in that range. Minnesota fired 81 shots on goal in those power games, which is 16.0% percent.
This is a stark contrast to games played before March 10, when Minnesota had a 6.8% power-play percentage (31st in the league) with just five goals and 4.7% PP points.
Leading the way for Minnesota in this recent rise, are naturally newcomer Karill Kaprizov and Kevin Fiala, both have four power-play goals in those 15 games, including two each against Colorado last Wednesday.
Caprice (16) and Fiala (14) are 1-2 at the Wilds this season, and the pair have combined 11 of 18 power-play goals in Minnesota (Fiala with the top six on the team).
Others who will count on power during this recent stock are Marcus Johansson,, Victor Rask,, Jared Spurgeon (with two) and Ryan Suter.
Spurgeon didn’t score in power play in a big 8-3 win over Colorado on Wednesday, but he assisted on three goals for the man’s advantage. He now has nine points in his last nine games, seven of which come in power play. Only Adam Fox of the New York Rangers, with 10 assists, has more points in power play in the same time period.
Other notes
– In that 8-3 win, four different Wild players had 3+ points (Fiala, Kaprizov, Rask and Spurgeon). This is only the third time in the history of the franchise that has happened. The other two: on February 27, 2018 in an 8-3 victory over St. Louis (Mikael Granlund, Eric Staal, Suter and Jason Zucker) and on March 29, 2009 in a 6-2 win against the New York Islanders (Andrew Brunette, Marian Gaborik, Owen Nolan and Marek Zidlicky).
– Rask tied his career high by three points. He did so five times with Caroline, and earlier this season, Feb. 22, with Minnesota.
– Opponent Friday, St. Louis, have only 11 goals in their last eight games, in which they are 1-6-1.
Statistics courtesy of Sportradar and hockey-reference.com
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