Wild's first line dominants again, taking 2-1 series lead over Golden Knights

SAINT PAUL, MINN. -- Minnesota Wild’s Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy finish game three with two points each in their 5-2 win on Thursday at Xcel Energy Center, jumping ahead of the Golden Knights in the series, 2-1.  

Minnesota’s first line, for a third consecutive game, set the pace for the Wild. The line led by Kaprizov, Boldly and Joel Eriksson Ek finished the evening with 17 shots, which is more than half of the team’s total shots.  

Through the opening three games of the series, Kaprizov (4 G, 3 A) and Boldly (4 G, 2 A) have a total of eight goals and five assists. 

Meanwhile, the Golden Knights first line, consisting of superstars Jack Eichel and Mark Stone, have not registered a single point. Golden Knights’ defenseman Noah Hanifin, who recorded an assist tonight, has posted a point in each game. 

The reason why they haven't been able to find any success is because the Wild are making it difficult for the Golden Knights to attack the middle of ice and get any clean, uncovered shots toward the net. 

I guess where I'd say we need to be better is taking away the goalies eyes," Golden Knights' head coach Bruce Cassidy said.

Defensively, the Golden Knights can't let Minnesota's two prolific players control the series.

"We got to be harder on them," Barbashev said. "I think we let them off the hook a little bit... To us it's a little wake up call. We just got to be harder as a team." 

Other than the consistent pair, Wild’s netminder Filip Gustavsson helped cushion his team by coming up with answers on a large number of scoring chances. Gustavsson, in back-to-back games, stopped 30 shots and finished with a .938 SV%. 

Golden Knights’ goaltender Adin Hill could not mirror Gustavsson’s performance and was pulled by the start of the final period, replaced by Akira Schmid. Through 40 minutes of play, Hill finished with 17 saves, allowed four goals, and had a .810 SV%. 

In his last two stars, Hill has allowed eight goals and has only stopped 29 shots and has a .780 SV %; A formula that does not equal playoff success.

"I think Hilly would be the first to admit he needs a good practice, sort of regain his footing, and feel good about his game," Cassidy said. 

Similar to game two, the Golden Knights started the contest chasing from behind.

A little over three minutes into the first period, Kaprizov lit the lamp first while on the power play, sniping a wrist shot after starting from near the crease and shooting from the point.   

Minnesota’s Marco Rossi scored his first playoff goal and extended his team’s lead to 2-0 a couple minutes later, following a misplay from behind the net by Hill before the score. 

On a typical routine puck retrieval from behind the net, Hill decided to cycle the puck up the board to forward Justin Brazeau instead of passing the puck to Vegas defenseman Brayden McNabb, who was in close proximity. Brazeau would chip the puck to Yakov Trenin, who sent the primary assist to Rossi. 

"They started better than us," Cassidy said. "We kind of expected that their first home playoff game in a bit, so you got to counter that." 

Around the halfway mark of the opening period, Golden Knights’ defenseman Alex Pietranglo cuts the deficit in half. From the point, Pietranglo zipped a hard slap shot coming from the board and squeaked the puck through the five hole of Gustavsson.

Going short side of Hill, Boldy would give the Wild some cushion, after stealing the puck from Hanifin from behind the Vegas net. 

"I think he got some confidence from Four Nation is what I would guess," Cassidy said when talking about the play of Boldy. "He's got a world class player back beside him. That helps. That's nice when a guy gets you the puck, like that breakaway pass the other night. That's special."

Seconds before the end of the second period, forward Ryan Hartman fired a shot to the net and the puck deflected off of Kaprizov to give the Wild a three goal cushion. 

Taking advantage of a two-on-one rush with William Karlsson, Vegas’ forward Reilly Smith scored his first of the playoffs, going forehand to backhand to make it 4-2. 

Lastly, Marcus Foligno would hit the dagger by scoring on the empty net opportunity. 

The Golden Knights will have less than 48 hours to figure out a solution to limit Boldy and Kaprizov, as game four will take place on Saturday at 1 p.m. 

"That's hockey some nights," Cassidy said. "You got to regroup and create your own breaks. They did, took advantage of them. We got to make sure we do that in game four." 

"There's no need for panic," Karlsson said. "It's one game at a time. All we can do is focus on the next one. Get that and it's status quo going back to Vegas."