Golden Knights at Wild, Western Conference 1. Round game 4 Preview

St. Paul, Minn. – The Minnesota Wild may be halfway in the Western Conference in the first round against the Vegas Golden Knights, but it is not time to celebrate.

The game manager of the best-of-7 series 2: 1 after a 5-2 win in game 3. Game 4 takes place on Saturday (4 p.m. ET; FDSNNO, SCRIPPS, MAX, Trutv, TBS, TBAS2, SN360) in the Xcel Energy Center.

However, the teams, who have a 2-1 lead in 68.8 percent of the time in a playoff series, led a 2: 7-best 7 series with 2: 7 in their history and finished the job once.

Two of the first round won two of the first three games against the Dallas Stars two seasons ago, but did not win again. The 2022 First Round Series against the St. Louis Blues is even more warning story.

The Wild lost the first game against the blues and then won the next two with a combined score of 11: 3. They lost the next three games with a combined score of 15-5.

After Minnesota game 1 lost to the Golden Knights, he exceeded Vegas with 10: 4 in competitions 2 and 3.

The wilderness does not want the story to be repeated.

“It is this season in which every goal, every game, every puck is important, do you know?” Wild striker Matt Boldy said. “You are one of the best teams in the NHL and you have some special players. You will make changes. We will also make changes and adjustments. It is a kind of way of thinking that you can approach the same mentality every day that you go into and it is a do-or-the game game.”

That is what coach John Hynes emphasized in his team on Friday: don’t look ahead, live at the moment. He said the fact that the game only knows its fate until the last game of their regular season has ended.

“I think our experience on the track, it was not fun to go through it,” he said. “You would like to take seven or eight games in the season in the season, but it was right there again. We couldn’t get the fish quickly enough into the boat, but we couldn’t look ahead. We could go through the X next to our name (in the overall ranking) without the process. We just have to go through the process.”

Here is a breakdown of game 4:

Golden Knight: The golden knights must be insulted from their upper line from their upper line. You have scored eight goals in this series, but none from Mark Stone’s trio, Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev. In order to create more offensive and more high -goers, the golden knights and in particular the upper line have to go into the wild defense. “I think where I would say that we have to be better is to take the eyes of the goalkeeper away as soon as you get your action on the net,” said Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy. “Get ready for one or two rebound chances.”

Wild: Marcus Johansson suffered an injury in the third period 3 and will not play. It will have a domino effect on several lines. Vinnie Hinostroza will enter the line-up and play his first playoff game since 2020. It will be a difficult task for the game who wants to rise 3-1 in a best-of-7 series for the first time in their story.

Number to know: Zeev Buium (19 years, 138 days) was the second youngest player in wild history, who was recorded by his first playoff point behind Pierre-Marc Bouchard, who was 119 days younger in 2003. The defender received his first point in game 3, a template for Kaprizov’s opening goal.

What is to be found: How much patience Cassidy has before making changes. Judging after the training on Friday, the Golden Knights are played with the same lines and defenses in the first three games. Adin Hill, who saved a percentage of 0.825 and was drawn to game 3 after two periods, is also expected on the net. “Sometimes it can be seen as a panic when they change lines,” said Cassidy. “We don’t want to send this message. We have to understand that we have to look at it at some point if it doesn’t work. However, I will tell you, it is in the back of your mind. It must be if you don’t get the results, but we are not there yet.”