Jared Spurgeon's heroics continue as Wild tie for most points in NHL: 3 takeaways vs. Predators

ST.

PAUL, Minn.

Who would have thought the way last season started and ended that the Minnesota Wild would be going into December tied for a share of the NHL lead in points? But when everybody wakes up Sunday morning Dec.

1 the Wild and Winnipeg Jets will be tied for the NHL lead with 36 points in 24 games.

Its the first time the Wild have shared the league lead in points since Dec.

9, 2021, according to NHL Stats.

Advertisement Thats thanks to Saturday nights 3-2 overtime win over the Nashville Predators in which captain Jared Spurgeon s third goal in two nights was also his fifth career overtime winner.

I mean, if you told me wed be in this position come end of last season, I dont know if I would believe you, but here we are, veteran Marcus Foligno said.

A lot of work has (been) put into this this season.

...

We want to be in first place and up there in the league and definitely beating Central Division teams.

Its a lot easier this time around.

At the 20-game mark last season, it felt like it was 80 games into the season, and it was miserable.

When youre having fun, when youre in tight spots in the game, that confidence is just there.

You dont panic, and thats what happens when youre a winning hockey team.

Spurgeon buried Kirill Kaprizov s pass on a two-on-one one minute into overtime.

Asked if he was shocked Kaprizov didnt shoot, Spurgeon said, kiddingly, It was sort of a surprise to me, too, but such a great pass.

I just tried to get it off as soon as possible.

Lucky it went in.

Mania in Minnesota! Jared Spurgeon nets the @Energizer overtime winner! pic.twitter.com/IWV6pgo24q NHL (@NHL) December 1, 2024 Kaprizov also scored his 15th goal of the season earlier in the game.

It was also his 61st career power-play goal, which moved him past Mikko Koivu for second on the teams all-time list and eight behind Zach Parise.

Kaprizov (48 goals, 52 assists in 64 games) has recorded his second calendar year with at least 100 regular-season points after recording 55 goals and 62 assists for 117 points in 2022.

Hes the only Wild player to accomplish the feat.

Kaprizov leads the NHL with 38 points in 23 games.

Kaprizov's one handed redirect to score pic.twitter.com/DIPmUrB7Nl CJ Fogler (@cjzero) December 1, 2024 Declan Chisholm also scored for the Wild and Filip Gustavsson made 25 saves to improve to 11-4-3.

The Wild, 2-0 on the homestand, host the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night before hitting the road for three games.

Chisholm playing well in an elevated role Chisholm spent the first part of the season in and out of the lineup, but as coach John Hynes has said over and over, the Wild dont have a seventh defenseman, they have seven defensemen that can play.

Advertisement With Jonas Brodin hurt with an upper-body injury that the Wild are waiting to get more information on how theyll proceed, Chisholm is not only in the lineup, hes playing second-pair minutes next to Spurgeon.

He has been terrific defensively, is playing a hard brand of hockey and Saturday night scored his first goal of the season by walking the blue line and letting it rip.

Its always nice to play a bit more and I really like playing with Spurgy, Chisholm said.

Im getting more comfortable out there and getting into more situations.

So its good for the confidence.

And, you know, I like the challenge.

Im just trying to play towards our system here and play hard in the D-zone.

If thats helping the team, Im gonna continue doing it.

What a SNIPE!!! #mnwild #NHL pic.twitter.com/kT6iK51Qw9 FanDuel Sports Network North (@FanDuelSN_NOR) December 1, 2024 Foligno-Gaudreau-Trenin line rebound from a tough game One night after a tough showing against Chicago , the Wilds checking line continued to frustrate its opponents.

They have been one of the leagues stingiest lines defensively this season.

While Foligno and Yakov Trenin took a couple of minors, Foligno had his first fight of the season, Foligno had six hits, Trenin two and the trio, which includes Freddy Gaudreau , skated hard and made life miserable on Nashvilles Steven Stamkos Tommy Novak Jonathan Marchessault line.

They also were on the ice for Chisholms goal, the league-leading 16th time the Wild have scored first this season.

Tonight was better, Foligno said.

Still things we got to do offensively, but we got that one goal, and I thought Trenny was skating really well tonight.

We just held on to pucks a bit better.

So we need more of that for our team.

We cant be a no-show some nights.

I think (Friday) against Chicago was not great.

I dont think we moved our feet that well, but when we do, you see it, we get a lot of pucks back, and then we go low to high, and we pound pucks at the net, and we get chances.

You just hope that you get rewarded when you do.

Foligno's on one tonight BIG hit on Forsberg https://t.co/b5anfZ3iBI pic.twitter.com/NcSZFjHot3 B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) December 1, 2024 Wild soaring with confidence Last year, the Wild got off to a bad start and didnt handle being inundated with injuries well.

This year, they have had a lot of injuries but just plug in guys like Ben Jones or Devin Shore or elevate guys like Chisholm.

They are a league-best 10-1-3 on the road and continue to play with incredible confidence no matter the situation with their lineup or in games.

Advertisement I think that obviously we have had ...

lots of injuries since the beginning of the year, Hynes said.

Kind of as I told the team after the game, I think that everyone thats called upon, I think if you look in net, both goalies when theyre called upon to play in net theyre answering the bell.

Guys like Chisholm, guys like (Jon) Merrill, early in the year you could see they look different in training camp.

Earlier when we didnt have injuries we were kind of rotating them in, their games deserved to be in there and I think thats important even though things are going well for us to keep guys engaged and playing and confident and really understand what their role is and why theyre in and why theyre out.

But it doesnt take away from, I think, their confidence and their importance to the team and thats paying dividends now.

I think also now with the injuries I think Jones, Shore, Travis Boyd ...

have done a really good job.

...

Those guys, they may not get as much ice time in certain games but I just really like the impact that those guys are having on the game.

Its positive.

They know how to play.

Theyre impacting the game.

Theyre not just taking shifts and I think thats collectively a group thats why weve been able to continue to move forward.

Boyd, incidentally, will likely have to be reassigned Sunday so the Wild can afford to call up David Jiricek , who was acquired Saturday from Columbus.

Jiricek is expected to practice with the team on Monday.

GO DEEPER 'It's an investment': Wild content with price paid for David Jiricek (Photo: Matt Krohn / Imagn Images).

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