Through seven games, the Minnesota Wild and Philadelphia Flyers are on opposite ends of the NHL spectrum.
The Wild hope to continue their sizzling start to the season Saturday when they visit the floundering Flyers.
Minnesota has not suffered a regulation loss in 2024-25, posting five wins and a pair of overtime defeats thus far. The team is coming off a 4-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday — a game in which the Wild trailed in regulation for the first time all season.
Joel Eriksson Ek erased the 2-1 second-period deficit after about seven minutes had elapsed, and then Matt Boldy provided the decisive tally early in the third. Kirill Kaprizov’s empty-netter — his second goal of the game, to go along with an assist — marked his fourth straight multi-point effort.
“There’s no panic there,” Minnesota coach John Hynes said. “We believe in how we need to play. We know how we need to play. If we get away from it or something happens in the game, we can get back to it quickly. We know what the recipe is to do it.”
Boldy finished with a goal and an assist and Marc-Andre Fleury made 23 saves for the Wild, who have scored first in all seven games thus far.
“We’re maybe more on the same page, everywhere and in every zone,” Fleury said. “Guys know where to go, where they’ll be, so when we get the puck, they don’t have to think or look around too much. We have an idea where the guys are at and that allows us to move quicker and get out of the zone quicker and attack a little quicker in the offensive zone.”
Meanwhile, the Flyers are last in the Eastern Conference with three points, and they have yet to earn a regulation victory. They nipped the Vancouver Canucks, 3-2 in overtime, in their season opener but since have gone 0-5-1 while allowing six goals on three separate occasions.
The most recent instance came Wednesday when Philadelphia allowed the game’s first four goals to Washington en route to a 6-3 defeat.
Backup netminder Ivan Fedotov continued to struggle, as he has given up 14 goals on 79 shots this season. Owen Tippett scored his first goal of the campaign for the Flyers, who rallied to within 4-3 before allowing a pair of empty-net goals.
“There’s always the, âIf we started a little earlier or gave one less goal up,’ but at the end of the day, it’s the result and you can just take the positives from it and build on it,” Tippett said.
For his part, Flyers coach John Tortorella was pleased with the team’s approach after falling behind 4-0. Of course, the fact that they faced the initial deficit was far from ideal.
“We showed some life, started forechecking,” Tortorella said. “Just had a little bit more zone time. So, at least the second half of the game’s a step in the right direction.”
Philadelphia has won three straight meetings with Minnesota, including both matchups last season. Bobby Brink scored twice for the Flyers in the first encounter, while teammate Joel Farabee scored a pair of goals in the rematch.
