Wild stifle Rangers offense, win easily

The Rangers and Wild faced off yesterday tied for 10th worst in the league, but the Wild weren’t that far out of a playoff spot and in need of a win. They dominated the Rangers at even strength, stifling their top line and only consistent source of offense en route to a 4-1 win. The game was pretty close until the third period, when a blown call gave the Wild a two-goal cushion and secured the win.

If this was the last hurrah for Mats Zuccarello and Kevin Hayes, it was a lackluster one. Both were nearly invisible for the entire game, which is a shame. There was a small Zucc-a-rell-o chant at the end of the game, but it didn’t get loud.

Adam McQuaid was injured in the first period then held out for precautionary reasons. There were a lot of questions about why the three amigos about to be traded were dressed, and perhaps this was the last game we see them in.

Wild 1, Rangers 0

Spurgeon PPG. Staal kinda drifts to no man’s land here, leaving Pionk to cover the man in front. That opens the lane to Spurgeon to Eric. Then Pionk kinda stares lovingly at the puck for a while before Spurgeon gets the goal.

Rangers 1, Wild 1

I think Pavel Buchnevich caught Devan Dubnyk by surprise on this one.

Wild 2, Rangers 1

Granlund goal. Shattenkirk gets outmuscled by Granlund and Pionk is…somewhere?

Wild 3, Rangers 1

That is a very blown call. Brady Skjei was tripped and it led to Zach Parise scoring.

Wild 4, Rangers 1

Jordan Greenway empty netter.

Shot Heatmap

This basically reflects how the game went. Just a whole lot of nothing for the Rangers.

The Blueshirts have a pair of matinee games over the weekend as all eyes are on Jeff Gorton. I wouldn’t be surprised if Zucc, Hayes, and McQuaid are all scratched for precautionary reasons for those games. I hope you are all glued to your Twitter accounts for updates!