A three-goal lead with twenty minutes left should not be a nervous proposition. For the Wild, on Thursday night at Grand Casino Arena, it was.
Minnesota built a 5-2 cushion through two periods behind Matt Boldy's hat trick and a night from Kirill Kaprizov, who had two assists to go with a goal, part of a run that has him at a league-high nine goals this early in the season. That's about as comfortable as a regular-season lead gets. Then the third period happened: St. Louis outscored the Wild 2-0 in the final frame, Holloway cashed in late, and a game that should've been a formality turned into a 5-4 sweat that Minnesota had to grind out.
They still won. The final score reads 5-4, Wild, and two points are two points whether they come by five goals or by five goals with a scare attached. Nobody remembers a 5-4 final as a loss, and the standings don't care how uncomfortable the last ten minutes were.
But getting away with something and playing well are two different things, and Minnesota needs to close that gap before this habit costs them a game they actually need. A team that builds a three-goal lead against a team it was clearly the better side against for forty minutes has no business needing a hero in net or a last save to close it out. Jesper Wallstedt didn't quite give them that. A goalie good enough to be in front of a 5-2 lead should be sharper closing it out.
This is the Wild's problem to own. The Blues were coming off a game where they'd done the blowing out themselves, and they found themselves on the other end of a comeback that fell just short. Give them credit: down three with one period left against a team playing with house money, they made Minnesota sweat every shift of the final ten minutes. That's effort and desperation doing real work against a team that had, by all appearances, started coasting.
Coasting is the issue. A 5-2 lead through two periods gets built by playing structured, disciplined hockey, and it has to be protected the same way. The Blues hadn't stopped trying, and for ten minutes it looked like the difference between the two teams would come down to who wanted the third period more than who had more talent on the ice. Minnesota has the better roster. On Thursday, for one period, they didn't play like it.
The box score says Boldy had a huge night and the Wild won. Both are true. The more honest read: Minnesota's best player bailed out a third period that had no business being competitive. If that becomes the pattern instead of the exception, a hat trick won't always be there to clean it up.
