Getty Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Body and Dakota Mermis, Minnesota Wild
The Minnesota Wild took a calculated risk against the Nashville Predators in a tightly contested game on March 10, and it paid off handsomely.
With just over a minute remaining in overtime, Minnesota head coach John Hynes pulled goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury for the extra attacker, giving Minnesota a 4-on-3 advantage and allowing Matt Boldy to score the game-winning goal in a 4-3 victory at Xcel Energy Center.
WILD WIN‼️
The @mnwild PULL THEIR GOALIE in @Energizer overtime and then Matt Boldy gets them that crucial extra point!
It was a bold move by Hynes, who was fired by the Predators last May after Nashville failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2014. Now behind the bench in Minnesota, he is pulling out all the stops as he chases his former team in the standings.
Hynes’ In-Depth Knowledge of NHL Rules Pays Off
According to the NHL Official Rules, if a team pulls a goalie for an extra attacker in overtime — without it being a delayed penalty — and the other team scores, the losing team forfeits the point it had already gained by forcing overtime. In other words, If Nashville had scored into Minnesota’s empty net, the Wild would have lost the one point they had gained and ended up with zero.
The odds for success aren’t favorable, so it’s not a move that NHL coaches employ often. Per Jessi Pierce of NHL.com, the last team to score a goal in overtime with their goalie pulled was the Los Angeles Kings on Oct. 28, 2017, against the Boston Bruins.
“It’s not something that you do all the time,” Hynes said when addressing media after the game. “But I think in our position, we want to be aggressive, we want to get 2 points. We believe in our group and want to continue to fight to play meaningful games down the stretch and let the chips fall where they may. So I think in the situation we’re in, 1 point, no point, it’s not going to do us any good. We’ve got to get 2 points.”
GettyJohn Hynes, Minnesota Wild
It’s one of the NHL’s more obscure rules; in fact, several Wild players didn’t even realize that they had risked losing the point they had gained in the standings in the event that Nashville won in overtime.
“I did not know that,” Boldy said when told by a reporter. “Good thing we scored.”
Wild Look to Gain Ground in Playoff Race
The win over Nashville saw the Wild leapfrog three teams in the standings to move into the ninth spot in the Western Conference. They are now six points out of the second wild-card spot in the West, with the Vegas Golden Knights holding a game in hand.
The Wild now have 69 points in 65 games. Nashville, in the top wild-card position, has 78 points in 66 games. Vegas has 75 points in 64 games. If the Predators and Golden Knights continue at their current pace, the Wild cannot afford to lose more than a handful of points down the stretch.
The Wild are in desperation mode, currently in danger of missing the playoffs for just the second time in the past 12 seasons. This is why, as Hynes said, 1 point was not enough.
“We’re not just going to quit, right?” Fleury said. “We got some pride, too, and we want to do well and keep fighting.”