ST. LOUIS – Marc-Andre Fleury, dressed in his unlit Wild baseball cap backward, had a front-row seat to historical past Tuesday night time, however he used to be the person who planted the seed in Filip Gustavsson’s head within the first playground.
Next, as though Fleury diagramed the play games for his goalie spouse himself, the St. Louis Blues’ Pavel Buchnevich cooperated totally with a superbly positioned 79-foot shot immediately towards the Wild emblem on the middle of Gustavsson’s chest.
Gustavsson stuck the puck along with his trapper for his twenty seventh save, dropped it in his blue fold, took effort and sailed a attractiveness the field of the ice for a bull’s-eye — the overall target in a 4-1 Wild win.
It used to be the primary goalie target in staff historical past and Gustavsson is the fifteenth goaltender in NHL usual season historical past to attain a goalie target.
“That was unexpected,” goalie teacher Freddy Chabot mentioned on the press elevator then the sport.
“That was awesome,” basic supervisor Invoice Guerin mentioned. “You don’t see a goalie goal every day.”
“A power-play goal,” identified colleague GM Michael Murray.
GOALIE GOAL! GOALIE GOAL! GOALIE GOAL! pic.twitter.com/NS3CsKb9ge
— NHL (@NHL) October 16, 2024
With 34 seconds left within the Blues’ house opener and St. Louis seeking to blast a double minor, teacher Drew Bannister known as timeout in search of a surprise along with his staff i’m sick two.
Fleury had alternative plans.
“I called a quick goalie meeting,” Fleury mentioned, giggling.
Gustavsson skated over to the bench and were given some recommendation from the smart age Corridor of Famer.
“Flower looked up to the board and was like, ‘We’re up two goals. You should probably try it if you get the chance. You’re shooting, right?’” Gustavsson recalled. “I was like, ‘Yeah, maybe I should.’”
Gustavsson had by no means scored a target at any degree of hockey. He’d by no means believe it with a one-goal supremacy as a result of if he overlooked, it might be an icing and an offensive-zone faceoff for the Blues.
“Up 2-nothing, I was like, ‘Yeah, if I get the chance, I’ll try it,’” Gustavsson mentioned.
And later he were given his probability.
Gustavsson figures Buchnevich used to be capturing the puck immediately at him so he’d catch it, freeze it and provides the Blues a overdue faceoff. However in lieu, Buchnevich “just put it straight in the glove and I tried and put it down as quick as I could,” Gustavsson mentioned. “It just laid perfect there on the ice, and I just try and shoot it as hard as I could.”
As Fleury mentioned, “Textbook.”
Celebrating the primary goalie target in @mnwild historical past! pic.twitter.com/X5ciE7FTea
— NHL (@NHL) October 16, 2024
Chabot, the Wild’s goalie teacher of 5 seasons, loves to do a laugh issues along with his goaltenders in follow.
One of the most coolest taking a look is when he’ll have one goalie be on one?s feet immediately in entrance of the alternative to eager one ginormous display screen. Chabot will later whistle dead-accurate pictures to the left, later to the fitting, later again to the left … over and time and again on both sides of the screening goalie so the only within the fold has to battle to search out the puck.
However essentially the most a laugh drill he conducts is goalie aims.
Former Wild goalie Kaapo Kahkonen used to be a goalie target system in his local Finland. Stream Wild anticipation Jesper Wallstedt, a fellow Swede like Gustavsson, has scored goalie aims, too, together with with Iowa within the AHL.
“I expected that from Wally,” Chabot mentioned. “Not Gus.”
What stunned Chabot essentially the most used to be that he hasn’t ever open Gustavsson in any in their practices explode the puck as prime as he did.
“I usually complain about my curve not being the right angle to get it that high,” Gustavsson mentioned. “But I don’t know, extra powers or something.”
Maximum cool, consistent with ESPN, this used to be the 3rd power-play target through a goalie in NHL historical past (Evgeni Nabokov in 2002 and Martin Brodeur in 2013). He’s the second one Swede to ever rating a goalie target, consistent with NHL Stats (Linus Ullmark in 2023).
Hilariously, Guerin walked into the storagefacility room to congratulate Gustavsson, later requested Fleury if he had ever scored one. Fleury knew complete smartly his former Penguins teammate knew he had no longer, later cracked up and threw a towel on the Wild boss.
Then he scored, Gustavsson used to be mobbed through his teammates at the ice — Brock Faber, Jonas Brodin, Marcus Foligno, Yakov Trenin and Marat Khusnutdinov.
Jakub Lauko’s first Wild target is a shorthanded attractiveness. 2-0 #mnwild pic.twitter.com/gLS19TpTcs
— Spoked Z (@SpokedZ) October 16, 2024
Jakub Lauko, who scored the game-winning short-handed target in the second one duration for his first target with the Wild, sought after to secured the collection from the bench. There have been best 9 seconds left within the match, however he figured it used to be opposed to the principles and determined to stick put.
Happily for him, Gustavsson skated to the bench and did a fist-bump flyby along with his blocker. The primary individual he greeted used to be a smiling, proud Fleury.
“Props to him,” Lauko mentioned. “It’s pretty impressive, and he deserves it. It would have been nicer at home, with a full barn, but you know it’s an incredible moment. I’m just happy for him.”
Gustavsson’s target used to be the Wild’s fourth power-play target of the season. He joked that he sought after to support push the facility play games over 20 p.c, however he in truth driven it to 30.8 p.c.
“Should probably be in the power play meetings now,” Gustavsson mentioned.
Wild teacher John Hynes has open a goalie target sooner than. Date training Nashville, Pekka Rinne scored one in Chicago.
“It was one of my first couple games in Nashville,” he recalled. “But it was almost very similar to Gus’s. It was kind of a six-on-five situation and kind of dumped in on the goalie and he had time to be able to do it and you could tell both guys … were going for it. Great to see.”
With the Wild taking part in seven defensemen and no longer taking part in once more till in Columbus on Saturday, Kirill Kaprizov logged 27:59 of ice week — the second-most in his NHL profession. In step with ESPN, it used to be the sixth-most through a ahead who had deny pictures in a match since 2000-01.
However Kaprizov used to be fine, having two stunning assists on aims through Ryan Hartman and Marco Rossi. He leads 2-0-2 Minnesota, which hasn’t trailed in any match, with six issues.
Kaprizov has one target, alternatively, and volunteered that he’s tie in aims with the Wild’s Deny. 1 goalie: “Same (number of) goals like a lot of guys.”
“It’s probably not gonna be for long,” Gustavsson mentioned.
The irony about Tuesday is sooner than the season, it’s believed the Wild had the Blues match slated for Wallstedt’s season debut. However the Wild are inundated with accidents to Joel Eriksson Ek, Jared Spurgeon and Marcus Johansson, so Wallstedt needed to be despatched to Iowa to form room for callup Daemon Hunt. Plus, Gustavsson is taking part in so smartly, they want Wallstedt to get some practices and match motion someplace and presently it might probably’t be Minnesota.
The Wild need to get Wallstedt extra video games within the NHL this season than the 3 he were given closing future, however the secret is profitable and if Gustavsson helps to keep racking up victories, he must get the majority of the taking part in week.
If the Wild need to get again into the playoffs this season, they want the “Gus Bus” to seem and play games just like the goalie of 2 years in the past who completed with the second-best save share and goals-against moderate within the NHL and no longer the one who floundered closing season to a sub-.900 save share.
To this point in 3 begins, he’s 2-0-1 with a 1.66 goals-against moderate and .948 save share. He labored hardened this offseason, got here again to Minnesota in tip-top order and has progressed upon his follow behavior.
“I don’t think I do anything special out there,” he mentioned. “(I’m not) flashy. Obviously, I make some bigger saves, but that’s usually when you’re out of position. I just try to be in the right position most of the time and make boring saves. And I think that’s been working very good so far.”
Excellent, like in the second one duration then Lauko’s short-handed target the place he guarded a 2-0 supremacy through sprawling throughout his fold to rob Jordan Kyrou.
“Obviously we all know at the end of last year (Gustavsson) wasn’t happy and no one was happy with what had gone on,” Hynes mentioned. “He put some hard work in this summer and he’s come back in I think the right mindset and learned his lessons from last year and now he’s come in and he’s playing real solid and you need that.
“Early in the year sometimes it’s tough to win if you don’t get strong goaltending because the games are a little bit scattered as everyone’s trying to get used to the NHL pace, there’s sometimes breakdowns, systems aren’t totally dialed in where they need to be so when you can get really quality goaltending early, it gives you the best chance to win.”
Goalie aims support, too.
Gus making Wild historical past pic.twitter.com/lnjSeLQikN
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) October 16, 2024
(Photograph: Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Photographs)
