Watch: Minnesota Wild OT gamble backfires, results in forfeited point
The Minnesota Wild are desperately clinging to their playoff hopes in the NHL's Western Conference and have to take some chances if they are going to get back in the race. One of those chances has been to pull their goalie when they get to overtime to give themselves a 4-on-3 advantage.
It worked out in their favor a couple of weeks ago against the Nashville Predators.
It did not work on Saturday.
The result was not only a 2-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights but also forfeiting their point in the standings they would have received for reaching overtime.
Here is a look at Vegas' overtime goal, perhaps the easiest overtime goal that will ever get scored in an NHL game.
Normally when a team loses a regular season game in overtime or a shootout it still collects one point in the standings for being tied at the end of regulation.
But an NHL rule is that if you pull your goalie in overtime and give up a goal with the net empty, you forfeit that point and walk away with none. So instead of gaining a point in the standings for losing in overtime on Saturday, the Wild get nothing.
Their mindset here is sound.
They need two points pretty much every game to have any sort of realistic chance to make the playoffs, so whether they get one point or no point is pretty much irrelevant to them. They decided to go all in for two and accepted the risk that comes with it. Their gamble worked a couple of weeks ago. It is not something that is going to work every time. They found that out here.
More must-reads: