The Minnesota Wild have won three straight games since John Hynes took the head-coaching reins.
The Wild will try to continue those winning ways when they kick off a four-game road trip Tuesday against the Calgary Flames.
Since Dean Evason was fired last Monday, the Wild have posted their season-best three-game stretch, with the latest victory being Sunday’s 4-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks.
“Our confidence right now is really good as a team,” said forward Marco Rossi, who scored twice against Chicago. “We won three in a row. We just try to get better every day. The road trip is a good test for us.”
Before the coaching change, the Wild had failed to put together three consecutive games in which they surrendered three or fewer goals. They have allowed only one goal in each of the past three clashes, outscoring their opponents 13-3.
“It’s really been a good week, and I think (Sunday) it was just continuing to hammer home the way we want to play,” Hynes said. “So, it was nice that we could put, for the most part, three pretty complete games together.”
The Wild have put together a solid turnaround and feeling confident.
“It’s definitely night and day,” Brock Faber said. “I think going on this trip we’re confident, but again, three wins is good for us. It’s a step in the right direction, but we’re still below .500 here. So, we know we have to keep getting better, trust the process and keep playing this way and keep building.”
Thanks to a one-goal, two-assist game against the Blackhawks, Wild forward Mats Zuccarello is up to three goals and 13 points in a nine-game point streak.
The Flames are coming off a 4-3 home loss to the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday and may have experienced more bad news. No. 1 goaltender Jacob Markstrom left Monday’s practice when a puck hit his blocker hand as he stretched out to make a save.
Markstrom immediately raced off the ice and headed to the dressing room. There was no update from the squad other than Markstrom had gone to be evaluated.
“He’s gone to get looked at. We’ll have to go from there,” coach Ryan Huska said.
If Markstrom is indeed out of action, the Flames would turn to No. 2 goalie Dan Vladar and summon top-prospect Dustin Wolf from the minors. Wolf is the AHL’s two-time top goaltender and last year’s league MVP.
The Flames have posted a solid 8-4-2 mark in their last 14 games but have not made things easy on themselves. They surrendered the first goal in 12 of those 14 games and trailed in all but one of them.
The Flames nearly erased a two-goal third-period deficit in the Vancouver game, but it was a firm reminder staking leads to the opposition is not the right game plan.
“We have to play with a lead. We want to flip that script, that’s one big thing for us,” Huska said.
The Flames did achieve something to build upon in that loss by snapping a 0-for-17 power-play drought. In fact, Calgary scored twice with the man advantage.
“We’ve just got to be ready to play, hungry and be ready to win,” forward Andrew Mangiapane said.
