Wild clobber Golden Knights to tie up playoff series

Minnesota Wild players celebrate with Minnesota Wild left wing Marcus Foligno, center, after his goal against Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Adin Hill (33) during the first period of game two in an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series at T-Mobile Arena Tuesday, April 22, 2025. Photo by: Steve Marcus

Adin Hill gave up a couple soft goals. Shea Theodore committed a pair of costly turnovers. Jack Eichel and Mark Stone failed to generate any offense.

The Vegas Golden Knights were all out of sorts Tuesday night at T-Mobile Arena, and suffered a 5-2 loss to the Minnesota Wild as a result of the off night.

The team’s best-of-seven first round Stanley Cup Playoffs series is now a de facto best of five with the tally at 1-1 and play shifting North to Minnesota’s Xcel Energy Center. Game 3 is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Thursday night.

Vegas will be at a real chance of exiting the postseason without winning a series for the second straight year if it resembles the team that showed up Tuesday.

The Golden Knights got off to a fast start and peppered Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson with four dangerous shots on goal in the first five minutes, but everything flipped from there.

Minnesota began to control play and logged seven of the next eight shots on goal before top-line winger Matt Boldy scored for the third time in the series.

Boldy cashed in on a breakaway by sliding the puck through Hill’s legs.

Hill, who got a standing ovation early on from turning away a pair of shots from Boldy’s explosive line, never looked the same the rest of the night.

The Wild scored goals on three of their next six shots into the early second period.

Wild wingers Mats Zuccarello and Marcus Foligno found the net off of turnovers before the first intermission, while superstar Kirill Kaprizov followed in Boldy’s footsteps and beat Hill on a breakway.

Hill stopped Kaprizov’s wrister at first but he couldn’t gather the puck, which trickled past the red light for another score. Kaprizov later added another goal on an empty-netter in the final minute.

The Wild dialed down their aggression after Kaprizov's first goal, instead focusing on preserving their four-goal lead to even up the series.

The Golden Knights never stopped attacking, though it was too late. Defenseman Noah Hanifin scored their first goal when he found a loose puck and roped it past Gustavsson.    

Second-line center Tomas Hertl scored his second goal of the series less than three minutes into the third period after establishing position in front of the net and converting on a pass from defenseman Alex Pietrangelo.

But Minnesota’s dropped-back defense proved too tough to crack. The Golden Knights struggled to take care of the puck consistently, let alone manufacture quality chances.

Their frustration boiled over with a skirmish around the 15-minute mark of the third period when the Wild took exception to Ivan Barbashev getting near Gustavsson. Barbashev’s helmet was knocked off, but the Wild seemed to take the worst of the punishment.

Pietrangelo took down Boldy while Hague clocked Kaprizov with an uppercut that brought the latter to his knees. Curiously, no penalties were awarded to either team.

The Golden Knights are in for a fight now with the Wild overall.

Any hope of Vegas rolling in the matchup after winning the Pacific Division and posting the NHL’s third best record as opposed to Minnesota sneaking into the playoffs is mostly knocked out. Vegas vs. Minnesota is going to be a competitive series.

This is a developing story. Check back to lasvegassun.com later for more coverage of the Golden Knights’ Game 2 loss.