May 4—ELMONT, N.Y. — And the wait continues. Needing just one point to clinch third place and a postseason berth in the inaugural Professional Women's Hockey League season, Minnesota saw host New York get two goals from Jaime Bourbonnais and score three times on the power play for a 5-2 victory Saturday afternoon in front of a crowd of 1,563 at UBS Arena. Minnesota (8-4-3-9, 35 points), which ..read more

PWHL Minnesota needed only one point Saturday to lock up a playoff berth. It missed its opportunity in painful fashion, as Boston won 2-1 on a goal with 2.7 seconds remaining at Xcel Energy Center. Vadnais Heights native and Gophers alumna Hannah Brandt played the spoiler in Minnesota's final home game of the regular season. Brandt got behind the defense, took a perfect pass from Hilary Knight ..read more

Toward the end of the Minnesota Wild 2023-24 season, when it was somewhat apparent that there would be no postseason, but everyone was still putting hope in the mathematical odds, one bright light shone through. Marat Khusnutdinov was finally making his way to North America. Many fans had been watching Khusnutdinov from afar while he was playing in the KHL. All eyes were on his team, which didn't make the KHL playoffs ..read more

The Minnesota Wild's biggest need in the draft is a prospect who can play in the NHL immediately. Pending next week's lottery, they hold Pick 13 in the 2024 Draft, and the pressure is on the Wild front office. The highest the Wild could realistically trade up is to third overall, which is currently owned by the Anaheim Ducks. Anaheim is a good trade partner because they already have two first-round picks in this year's draft (No. 24) and the flexibility to move up and down the draft board as they wish ..read more

This makes complete sense for a young man that left his hometown at age 17 to chase his dream of playing in the NHL. During that time, he played one season for the USHL's Waterloo Blackhawks, scoring 58 points over 62 games. The draft eligible Firstov was selected by Minnesota the following summer. To acclimate to the North American style of play, he enrolled at UCONN for three years, which included shortened seasons due to COVID ..read more

Natalie Spooner scored twice and Toronto clinched first place in the inaugural season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League with a 4-1 win over Minnesota on Wednesday night. Toronto (12-4-0-7) moved ahead of Montreal (10-3-5-5) in the standings with 44 points, while holding the tiebreaker in case of a tie by regular season’s end. Earning first place means Toronto is able to choose between the third- or fourth-place team as its first playoff opponent ..read more

For the second straight year, Calgary Flames fans have been forced to find a new team to cheer for in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. There was hope amongst the fan base that the Flames could bounce back after a tough 2022-23 season, but it became evident early on that this current roster isn't good enough to compete. Luckily, they have a new general manager (GM) in Craig Conroy who quickly realized that himself. Conroy made several trades this season, sending away some of his top pending free agents in Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, Chris Tanev, and Noah Hanifin for young players, prospects and d ..read more

The NHL officially announced their candidates for the Calder Memorial Trophy, which goes to the top-performing rookie in the NHL, on Tuesday, April 30. The names will come as no surprise to anyone who has followed the NHL closely this season. The Chicago Blackhawks' Connor Bedard and the Minnesota Wild's Brock Faber are both finalists and have been in a tight race for the top rookie spot all season. The New Jersey Devils' Luke Hughes is the third finalist, and while he's been talked about, Bedard and Faber have stolen the show ..read more

Wild defenseman Brock Faber on Tuesday was named one of three finalists for the Calder Trophy, which is awarded annually to the NHL's rookie of the year. The former Gophers star out of Maple Grove joins Chicago center Connor Bedard and New Jersey defenseman Luke Hughes as finalists for the award, which will be announced at the NHL Awards show scheduled for June 27 in Las Vegas. Faber, 21, finished the season with eight goals and 47 points, 150 blocked shots and averaged a team-high 24:58 of time on ice ..read more

One of the more beloved players in recent Minnesota Wild history, has now found himself on the outside of the playoffs, looking in. Former Wild defenseman Matt Dumba and his Tampa Bay Lightning have been eliminated from the playoffs after falling to the intrastate rivals, the Florida Panthers, on Monday night in Game 5. All they managed to scrap together was one win -- a desperation Game 4 win to avoid being swept -- against the Panthers who really seem destined to go deep once again into the postseason. This was Dumba's first year outside of Minnesota in his professional career after the tea ..read more