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Jon Merrill, Minnesota Wild (Amy Irvin / The Hockey Writers)

3 Takeaways From the Wild’s Win Over the Capitals

Originally posted on The Hockey Writers
By Mariah E. Stark | Last updated Mar 28, 2025 8:45 AM ET

The Minnesota Wild hosted the Washington Capitals on Thursday evening, Mar. 27, with all the talk focused on Alex Ovechkin’s chase to break Wayne Gretzky’s goal-scoring record. Going into the game, Ovechkin had 889 goals, just six away from breaking the record. The Wild had Marcus Foligno back in the lineup and heard a little but encouraging news that Kirill Kaprizov and Joel Eriksson Ek had started skating, but their return is going to be a while yet, head coach John Hynes said at their morning skate prior to their game.

Filip Gustavsson was back in net, and while he didn’t have to make any spectacular saves, he was their backbone once again. The Wild jumped out to an early lead, but the Capitals fought back to take their own lead, followed by the Wild responding to steal the lead back. The Wild put up a significant defense in the third and took the 4-2 win. In this article, we’ll look at how they did it, starting with shutting down Ovechkin.

Wild Shut Down Ovi

This will likely be the storyline that overshadows all of the others: how the Wild held Ovechkin without a goal or even a point in his goal chase. He had chance after chance, including three straight point shots in the first period, but the Wild stepped up and blocked every single one. He also had a few close calls that just missed, and the Wild had luck bounce their way.

“..Made a tough one in the third giving Ovi a breakaway but part of being a part of such a good team is guys have your back and Brods came back and and broke that up with nothing happening, so like I said the whole time it’s been great to be a part of this group,” said Vinnie Hinostroza about the strong play of the team and how they helped on a turnover.

“I’m on the list still, so that’s enough I think,” said Gustavsson about not letting Ovechkin get a goal against him on his run to break the record. Ovechkin has scored on Gustavsson in the past, but the Wild made sure to keep him away this time.

Wild Find Scoring Success

After struggling the last two games against the Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars earlier in the week, the Wild finally found more scoring success. They had trouble getting anyone in front of the net and therefore struggled to score until the second half of their game against the Capitals. All three of their goals resulted from having a player in front of the goaltender and screening.

Jon Merrill didn’t waste any time when he took a shot from the point, and it worked as he had the perfect screen from all 6-foot-6 of Justin Brazeau. Their next goal was a shot by Matt Boldy that was tipped by Frédérick Gaudreau, who was waiting in front. Their third goal that Boldy scored was also because he was right in front of the net, and he gave the goaltender no time to move or respond to his shot.

“It just shows when we’re playing at our best, we’re where we should be. We’re one of the top teams and after a 2-1 deficit there and we didn’t back down. We killed a pk right after that challenge and then we just went on the attack again,” said Gustavsson about the overall effort of the team.

Wild’s Special Teams Step Up

Again, after two games in which the Wild had trouble generating on the power play and keeping the puck out on the penalty kill, both of their special teams bounced back against the Capitals. Their penalty kill stepped up against a strong power play, and they didn’t let anything through. What did make it, Gustavsson was ready for. Their penalty kill was perfect all night and killed off both penalties they took.

The power play was also successful. While it took a bit for it to get going, they found a way that worked as the game went on. It was mentioned above how the Wild’s goal went in because someone was in front of the net, and the power play goal had the same result. They had Gaudreau waiting in front, and he was able to tip. The Wild have been extremely successful when they’ve found ways to tip the puck, and they need to continue to do so.

“Yeah, first time I’ve ever been up there, so the first power play we didn’t really get in there too much and then the second one kind of having a little bit up there but you just adapt I think. You know playing the half wall I feel like I’ve played it for a while, you kind of know what you like when D kind of make plays and move up there so that was kind of my mindset, but honestly it was pretty simple, get up there, pass it to Zuccy or JoJo and shoot it if I could, so I’m definitely no Cale Makar up there,” said Boldy about playing the point on the power play, and he added when asked if he was given any advice, “No, nothing. Crickets.”

Wild Stay Home

The Minnesota Wild will finish up this homestand on Saturday, Mar. 27 when they host the New Jersey Devils in their first meeting of the season. Hopefully the Wild can build off this win over a tough team and do the same to the Devils and keep themselves strong in the postseason race.