Wild need more from penalty kill, goaltending

The second round series from the Central Division has been circled on the hockey calendar as the most anticipated matchup of the first two rounds of the playoffs basically all year.

It was a virtual certainty that the Colorado Avalanche would emerge to face the winner between the Minnesota Wild and Dallas Stars, two of the best teams in the NHL who were both locked out of a No. 1 seed by the historically strong Avs.

Through two games between Colorado and Minnesota, it looks like the series may not be as exciting as it was cracked up to be, and that the historical strength of Colorado may have been underestimated by the hockey world writ large.

The Avs have built up a 2-0 series by exploiting a vulnerable Wild penalty kill and by solving both of the Wild’s well-regarded goaltenders in rookie Jesper Wallstedt and Filip Gustavsson, who got the nod in Game 2 after Wallstedt, who was excellent against Dallas in the first round, surrendered eight goals in Game 1.

On Friday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, host Tyler Yaremchuk and co-host and former NHL video coach Steve Peters discussed why either Wallstedt or Gustavsson will have to find their game in a hurry, and lift up the penalty kill in the process, for the Wild to have any sort of chance against the Avalanche.

Tyler Yaremchuk: When that series does finally resume, it’s going to see a Wild team looking to avoid going down 3-0 on home ice, very similar to the Flyers last night, Petey, so let’s do a key to victory for the Wild if they want to try to get back in the series.

Steve Peters: Yeah, we’ve said special teams and goaltending, and really that’s the case here as well. The penalty kill has been atrocious. 59% through the entire playoffs, horrific penalty killing. So stay out of the box. Wallstedt needs to be better. He gave up eight goals in his last appearance, I know, but then they switch the goaltenders to Gustavsson. This is the worst game he’s every played in the National Hockey League giving up eight goals. The only thing close is the first game he ever played where he gave up seven. Wallstedt is going to have to be the key to this victory. Colorado is going to play with speed. They’re going to come at you. They’re going to get to the net with guys like Lehkonen and Necas, so you better have great goaltending. Wallstedt has to be the best player on the ice for the Minnesota Wild… if he plays.

You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode below…