BOSTON – In a town where narrow streets and millions of people in a hurry to get around often make for legendarily stifling traffic, the Minnesota Wild found themselves offensively congested for the second game in a row on Tuesday.
Some early pushes went for naught as the Boston Bruins got 34 saves by goalie Jeremy Swayman and stifled Minnesota’s puck-movers much of the night, grabbing a 3-0 win at TD Garden and extending the Wild’s losing streak to two.
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Marc-Andre Fleury recorded 31 saves for the Wild, who had opened this five-game road trip with a trio of wins, but saw their reputation as one of the league’s more powerful road teams take a hit in Boston.
Trailing by a pair, the Wild got two power plays and an abbreviated third man advantage in the final period, but were unable to solve Swayman, who posted his third shutout of the season.
“Probably some of our execution could’ve been better. I thought we had some looks. Swayman made some good saves. We had some good pushes and surges in the game,” said Wild coach John Hynes, who took a generally upbeat look at the effort if not the result. “I think our execution could be a little bit crisper. But overall we’ll take the positives out of the trip and get home.”
Combined with Saturday’s 6-0 loss in Ottawa, it marked the first time Minnesota has been blanked in back-to-back games since the Wild were shut out by Seattle and Los Angeles on Nov. 3 and 8 in 2022.
The Wild, as has been their nature in most road games, started fast, testing Swayman early on, including on the game’s first power play, and holding Boston without a shot on goal for the game’s first 9:25.
From that point, with Minnesota up 5-0 in shots, the home team put Fleury to the test, outshooting the Wild 14-2 in the second half of the opening period.
Fleury, who was playing in his 1,044th NHL game – second most in league history – was up to the test, and his body of work included a sweeping glove save on Pavel Zacha.
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Fleury acknowledged making another entry in the NHL record book, but said he would have preferred better news on the scoreboard.
“A win would’ve been better, for sure,” he said. “It’s cool. I feel very fortunate that I’ve been around for this long. I’ve been very lucky to play the game I love for this long.”
After surviving a push by the Wild early in the second, Boston got on the board first when Charlie McAvoy re-directed a David Pastrnak shot past Fleury.
The Bruins doubled their lead a few minutes later when a broken play in the offensive zone left Minnesota undermanned in the other end of the rink.
Marcus Foligno missed a set-up pass from Marco Rossi and ended up in the Boston net, at the same time as Marcus Johansson was knocked down, leaving the Bruins with a 5-on-3 advantage in numbers as they headed up ice. Just across the offensive blue line, Trent Frederic unloaded a rising shot that may have nicked Fleury’s glove on the way to the upper right corner of the net.
“It’s quick game, right. Those two guys go down, and they’ve got an odd number on the other side,” Fleury said. “They make a quick play across and the guy walks in by himself. Small things and little details sometimes cost you a goal.”
It was an inch away from being worse, when Boston’s Oliver Wahlstrom came out of the penalty box for a breakaway in the third and clanked a shot off the crossbar behind Fleury. Boston finally made it three in the final minute when Mason Geekie hit a long-range shot into an empty net.
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Hynes looked for positives after the blowout in Ottawa, which he considered one of Minnesota’s worst games of the season.
“I thought our response back from the Ottawa game, the focus level was where it needed to be,” he said. “It didn’t go our way in certain areas tonight, but…as I said, I’m proud of the guys for the road trip. Lots of positives coming out of this game.”
While forwards Kirill Kaprizov (lower body injury) and Ryan Hartman (suspension) aren’t expected back in the lineup until March, the Wild crept closer to a healthy roster on Tuesday with the return of defenseman Jonas Brodin (lower body) and Marcus Johansson (upper body) to the game night roster.
Brodin played more than six minutes in the opening period and took an interference penalty midway through the game while clearing out traffic in front of his goalie.
“He’s a pretty special player,” Wild captain Jared Spurgeon said of Brodin’s return. “Him and (Johansson) came in and played great. It was great to have them back.”
With their five-game road trip concluded, the Wild return to St. Paul for a pair of games prior to the NHL’s two-week break for the 4 Nations Face-Off. Minnesota hosts Carolina on Thursday and the New York Islanders make their only trip to Minnesota this season on Saturday.
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