ST. PAUL, Minn. — Jesper Wallstedt did not need to make it complicated.
After allowing eight goals in Game 1, sitting out Game 2 and waiting five days between starts, the Minnesota Wild rookie goaltender returned to the crease Saturday night with the season almost hanging in the balance.
His mindset?
“My job description is pretty easy, save the puck.”
That is exactly what he did.
Wallstedt stopped 35 shots in the Wild’s 5-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche, helping Minnesota cut Colorado’s series lead to 2-1. It was a response the Wild needed after a chaotic start to the series, and it was another reminder of why John Hynes went back to the rookie in the first place.
Game 1 was not pretty. Wallstedt gave up eight goals in a 9-6 loss, and Hynes turned to Filip Gustavsson for Game 2. But Wallstedt never treated the extra time away from the net like punishment. He treated it like a reset.
“Well I think it was good for my mind and my head to just look at some details. It’s very easy when you just play, play, play. And you don’t practice much. You get out there in morning skate just to get to feel some pucks. You’re never really working on details. And I think there was some stuff I had to look at and some stuff I could improve on. And I felt like those days gave me that and it also gave me some time to get away from the rink a little bit.”
That showed.
Wallstedt looked calmer. The Wild looked more structured in front of him. Their penalty kill finally gave them momentum instead of taking it away. They blocked shots, boxed out, took away sticks and forced Colorado into the looks Minnesota was more comfortable living with.
For Wallstedt, that mattered.
“It’s obviously huge. We have to kill penalties. I thought theirs, obviously we’ve had some days where PK has been a focus to look at. There’s been stuff there we had to adjust to what (can’t make out word) us. We improved on those today. Felt like we were more predictable in what we wanted to do and we gave up shots where we wanted to give up. I think our pressure was great.”
The save that could have changed the game came in the first period when Parker Kelly had a Grade-A look on a partial breakaway. Wallstedt shut it down.
In a game where Colorado was looking for any way to flip momentum back, that was the type of stop the Wild did not get enough of in Game 1.
Hynes said he had no doubt Wallstedt would respond.
“Well, I had no doubt he was going to be back, just kind of who he is. And the reasons why we didn’t play him in Game 2 was for the right reasons. You see the result tonight. He’s a competitor. He’s got confidence. He’s been very solid, and I just thought he got right back to his game tonight. He’s proven throughout the playoffs that the moments don’t get too big for him. He’s very consistent. He’s solid and it was good to see him perform the way he did tonight.”
That has been the thing with Wallstedt all postseason. He does not look like a goalie trying to survive the moment. Even after Game 1, he did not sound rattled. He broke down what he liked, what he did not like and what needed to change.
Then he went back in and changed it.
“Well that’s my job. That’s what I’m supposed to do. My job description is pretty easy, save the puck. That’s what I’m trying to do. And obviously when you give up eight, that’s not doing your job. Well, like I said, there’s goals I weren’t happy with. There was stuff I thought I did good. And then you kind of try to separate what was good with what you have to improve on and what was bad, what stuff you have to adjust playing this opponent. And I think I did that well. And was more prepared for today’s game than I was for Game 1.”
Marcus Foligno said the Wild saw this coming.
“Honestly I’m impressed with Wally all year but you could feel it coming. That first game was not on him??? It’s just a weird one for both goalies. Wally, he’s in the zone. He felt great and a big reason why we succeeded so far in the playoffs. When he got the call to go back in, it was exciting. There’s always a rebound in sports. It’s like you have a bad game, you come back with a better game, and we just knew that he was due.”
The Wild also gave him a game that looked more like them.
They were physical early. They clogged the neutral zone. They made Colorado work for ice instead of handing it to them. They also got the lead, which allowed Wallstedt to settle into the game without chasing it.
But even then, he said the score did not change much for him.
“Well, it’s always nice to play with a lead. For me, my focus is always just the next shot. Me and Freddy and Gus always say, it’s always a 0-0 game. It doesn’t matter what it is. It’s every period, every shot, every save you make out there, it’s always 0-0. So you just keep playing like you always – you don’t change either if you’re up or if you’re down.”
That is probably why the Wild were comfortable going back to him.
The series could have felt heavy. Down 2-0. Coming off an eight-goal game. Facing one of the fastest and most dangerous offensive teams in the league.
Wallstedt flipped the pressure the other way.
“No, I think they are the ones with pressure. We know what we can do in our home rink. We know we’ve played great hockey here. I think they know if they give up one, we’re coming for the next one. I think we showed that today that we were not happy with two nothing. We wanted to go out and improve. We wanted to go out and play better today. Yeah, now it’s a 2-1 series. We’re right back in it.”
That is the biggest thing for Minnesota.
It is not 3-0. It is 2-1. And after one of the worst nights of his young playoff career, Wallstedt came back with exactly the type of game the Wild needed.
“Yeah, I think it’s massive. Obviously we knew that this game was going to be huge for us. It’s either three nothing or two-one," Wallstedt said. "Yeah, now it feels like we’re right back in it. I think we proved to everyone and ourself that, when we play the right way, when we play the game style we want to play, we’re just as good as anyone else. And especially these guys. I think we showed a different style, the style that we want to play. I think that was successful.”
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