ST. PAUL, Minn. — The crowd in the lower bowl of Xcel Energy Center was on its feet all of overtime in Game 4 on Saturday.
Anxious Minnesota Wild fans waited to erupt with every offensive-zone entry. One goal would put the Wild in a situation they’ve rarely seen — on the doorstep of closing out a first-round series.
That excitement reached a new level when center Joel Eriksson Ek drew a holding call on Golden Knights center Nicolas Roy eight minutes into overtime, putting the Wild’s top players on the ice for one more power-play opportunity.
The Wild had one shot during the man advantage.
Suddenly, doubt crept in for a fan base that has dealt with enough postseason heartbreak to last a lifetime. Minnesota hasn’t made it out of the first round since 2015.
The Wild are facing a franchise that has rarely seen playoff disappointment — a roster with 14 skaters and a goaltender who won the Stanley Cup two years ago.
That experience came in handy.
Backs against the wall in a must-win situation, left wing Ivan Barbashev pounced on a loose puck in front of the Wild’s crease and scored the game-winner with 2:34 remaining in overtime to give the Knights a 4-3 win.
“I think this time of year, experience is a big thing,” defenseman Shea Theodore said. “We have a lot of guys that are still on the team when we won. We added some great pieces to continue building that. We like where we’re at.”
The standing fans headed straight for the exits. Many dejected, some angry at calls that weren’t made in Minnesota’s favor.
The end result? Momentum back in the Knights’ favor with a 2-2 series going back to T-Mobile Arena for Game 5 at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Home-ice advantage that was lost after a defeat in Game 2 is now back in the Knights’ favor.
“At the end of the day, it’s 2-2. It’s best-of-three,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We came here thinking, ‘OK, it’s a best-of-five. We lost home-ice. We got it back. It’s a best-of-three. It’s been hard-fought, every inch of ice out there. That’s how I’m looking at it.”
Serious business
The best way to describe the Knights’ locker room in St. Paul was monotone.
Visiting locker rooms in past playoff series would be vibrant. The energy would be high. Chatter and chirps were constant.
That was hardly seen when the Knights arrived in Minnesota.
It could have been because the Knights had one of their worst performances in Game 2, with four turnovers turning into four Wild goals in a 5-2 loss.
The Knights didn’t help their cause in Game 3 on Thursday. Puck management and fortuitous bounces turned a game they controlled through most of two periods into another 5-2 loss.
Frustration likely boiled over. The Knights’ top line of center Jack Eichel, captain Mark Stone and Barbashev were without a point through three games.
Meanwhile, Wild left wing Kirill Kaprizov and right wing Matt Boldy combined for 13 points. That was the difference. Puck management and turnovers aside, the Wild’s top players delivered and the Knights’ stars didn’t.
“I’d be a lot more worried if we were sitting here feeling like we did nothing for 60 minutes, but I don’t feel like that’s the case,” Stone said Friday. “A couple missteps along the way that have ended up in our net, and we haven’t been able to execute to put them in there.”
Flipping the script
Minnesota didn’t shy away from that matchup in Game 4. Wild coach John Hynes put his top line out against Cassidy’s from the start.
Eichel, Stone and Barbashev didn’t need to take over in Game 4. They needed to show signs of life. They got two shots on goal in the first minute, and that carried over.
All three recorded their first points of the series. Ironically, they came on the power play after Cassidy put the forward lines in a blender and separated the three.
Kaprizov was held to one assist. Boldy went without a point for the first time in the series. That line was outshot 11-7, and the score was 1-1 with them on the ice.
The goal against was Barbashev’s winner.
Minnesota has spent all series clogging the middle of the ice and keeping the Knights to the outside.
The Knights’ two biggest goals of the season — Barbashev’s game-winner and center Tomas Hertl’s deflection off his skate in the third period to give them a 3-2 lead — came in front of the crease.
“Oh, man. We’re in a good spot,” Hynes said. “Hard-fought battle, played well again. Game was right in our hands. We knew it was going to be a hard series. We love where we’re at. … We’re here, man. We’ll just keep grinding.”
A Wild one
The Wild have every reason to feel confident. The first wild card in the Western Conference has a four-game split against the conference’s No. 2 seed.
It’s easy to forget that the Wild weren’t playing like a wild-card team before Kaprizov suffered a lower-body injury in December that ultimately wiped out half his season. Minnesota stood fourth in the NHL before their former 100-point scorer was injured.
Eriksson Ek (lower body) also missed six weeks before returning for the final four games of the season.
Knights fans are finding out that the Wild at full strength are a formidable matchup.
The series now returns to Las Vegas. The Wild still have a chance to rewrite their playoff history. The Knights have belief again.
The fan base of the team that loses this series is in for a long summer.
”We were on our toes the whole night,” Theodore said. “It seemed like we didn’t really fall back, and I don’t think we gave up much. We’re looking to continue that for Game 5.”
Contact Danny Webster at [email protected]. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.
Up next
Who: Wild at Golden Knights
What: Game 5, first round (series tied 2-2)
When: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday
Where: T-Mobile Arena
TV: KMCC-34
Radio: KKGK (1340 AM/98.9 FM)
Line: Knights -220; total 5½
Series schedule
(Series tied 2-2)
All games on KMCC-34 and KKGK (1340 AM, 98.9 FM)
Game 1: Golden Knights 4, Wild 2
Game 2: Wild 5, Golden Knights 2
Game 3: Wild 5, Golden Knights 2
Game 4: Golden Knights 4, Wild 3 (OT)
Game 5: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at T-Mobile Arena
Game 6: TBD Thursday at Xcel Energy Center
*Game 7: TBD May 3 at T-Mobile Arena
*if necessary
