Matt Boldy’s breakaway in overtime sealed the victory, but the Wild’s detailed defending up until then paved the way for that play.
The Leafs had just five shots on net in the third, three scoring chances and only one high-danger look, according to Natural Stat Trick. Goaltender Filip Gustavsson improved to 6-1-1 with his 27-save effort, and six of those eight games he’s given up two goals or fewer.
“Our forwards are doing a great job of coming back and letting us stand up and making [the other team] chip or even if we don’t have that gap, they’re coming back and making them make plays before they want to,” captain Jared Spurgeon said. “It’s a big, big thing we worked on in camp, and the forwards are doing a great job making it easy on us.”
With Kaprizov on a jaw-dropping scoring pace — this was only his second pointless game of the season after Winnipeg denied him on Oct.13 — and on the heels of two 5-3 victories, the Wild offense has received plenty of praise for the 8-1-2 record that has the Wild sitting third in the league with 18 points.
But the Wild limiting a talented Toronto lineup to one goal gave the goaltending and defense a turn in the spotlight. Overall, only two teams (Carolina and the New York Rangers) have allowed fewer goals than the 27 the Wild have surrendered.
“A lot of offense comes from our ‘D’ playing so well and having good gaps and breaking the puck out well,” Boldy said. “In our room, I think we give our ‘D’ a lot of credit, and they’ve been awesome.”
