I am honestly not sure what to say about game 3. The first period looked so good. Wild players were in front of the net. Pucks were finding their sticks and actually getting past Fleury. Spirits were high!
And then the Wild turned in the worst two periods of the entire season series against the Golden Knights. Vegas got more goals than the Wild got shots over the last 40 minutes of game 3. It was an intensely frustrating game to watch.
Here's a concerning split of the goalie numbers in this series:
| Goalie | Min. | Sv | GA | Sv% | GA/60 | xGA/60 |
| Talbot in first 1.5 games | 96 | 57 | 0 | 100 | 0.00 | 2.45 |
| Fleury in first 1.5 games | 96 | 55 | 2 | 96.5 | 1.25 | 2.79 |
| Talbot in last 1.5 games | 86 | 47 | 7 | 87 | 4.79 | 2.44 |
| Fleury in last 1.5 games | 88 | 23 | 2 | 92 | 1.36 | 1.70 |
The Wild offense has gone from bad to worse since Dumba scored in game 2. We dont even know if Fleury is unbeatable right now because he hasnt had to do much to keep Minnesota in check.
Talbot on the other hand has had a bad 90 minutes. Vegas hasn't started generating more or better chances, they are all of a sudden over performing their xG numbers. Vegas has good shooters, but for Minnesota to win, Talbot needs to stop more than 87% of shots.
It's a simple game, get shots on Fleury, stop the shots on the other end of the ice. Some of what we are seeing is the Knights dominating the puck possession game. Throughout the season, Vegas always had better possession numbers than the Wild, so this isn't too surprising, but the Wild have to find a way to tilt the ice back the other way a little bit, or the series will continue to be frustrating until it's over.
Dylan Fremlin continues his analysis of Wild players, this time focusing on Kevin Fiala and how he generates offense.
Generating offense, you say? That seems relevant to Wild fans interests.
Prediction: Wild avenge the Twins loss and win 5-3 in overtime
🤔
Wild are 0-1 when a goal is taken back.
Goodness, what a terrible call.
Announcers thought it was the right call. I guess his skate entered the blue area at the last split second
Hmmmm
This is more of the same frustrating game with the Wild generating better chances and Vegas scoring more goals.
Argh.
How many times has a Wild defenseman fallen down in this series?
Okay, I'll check in later if it gets close
Lots and lots of Wild fans on Twitter saying the series is fixed
TWINS BASEBALL!! a. SEND HIM!!!😲
lol, this must have happened in my pocket
Blues swept out of the playoffs. Avs will be rusty as they sit and wait for Wild to win in 7.