Wild goalie Filip Gustavsson announces return to form with 40-save game in win over Hurricanes

RALEIGH, N.C. – Pucks flew at Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson, one after another after another, while his counterpart idled in the other crease.

But being busy was fine by Gustavsson; he wasn’t jealous of the lighter workload Carolina’s Antti Raanta had.

“No, definitely not,” Gustavsson said. “It’s more uncomfortable standing there.”

Sending so few shots on net in the first period (a measly three) and even halfway through the second (three more) wasn’t the Wild’s plan on Sunday, but perhaps it paid off.

“Maybe it’s a little bit easier for Gus because more shots, he sweats, more movement than for Raanta,” Kirill Kaprizov pointed out.

Either way, Gustavsson was locked in, his 40 saves in the Wild’s 5-2 win against the Hurricanes announcing his return to form since being injured and ahead of a crucial week for the Wild.

“When I first got here, this was the style of game I saw him play,” coach John Hynes said. “Patient, confident, saw pucks well, read the play well. Was very poised back there and made key saves at key times.”

Gustavsson began to trend in this direction during the previous game.

After he was on the hook for every goal in a 7-3 stinker last Thursday at Tampa Bay, Gustavsson backed up Marc-Andre Fleury on Friday against Florida until about halfway through the action: Fleury pulled himself because of an upper-body injury suffered in the first period when he was hit behind the net by the Panthers’ Will Lockwood.

The relief appearance didn’t start out great for Gustavsson; he was scored on three times, including twice on back-to-back shifts to trim the Wild’s lead from three goals to one. But after that, Gustavsson was airtight, the goalie getting in the way of Florida’s desperate attempts from various angles to preserve a 6-4 victory for the Wild.

On Sunday, Gustavsson picked up where he left off.

He rattled off 13 saves in a row before a puck finally eluded him, a sizzling shot from Martin Necas after an unsuccessful clear by the Wild put Necas in slam-dunk range. Michael Bunting also capitalized for a 2-2 tie in the third period, but the Wild responded with three goals — including a Kaprizov hat trick — for a lopsided finish that could have belonged to Carolina if Gustavsson hadn’t made the stops that he did earlier.

“Gus was a big difference in the game,” Hynes said. “The first shot’s a breakaway on a breakdown. But if you’re a winning team, you get saves when you need them.”

These two wins over the weekend were Gustavsson’s first since healing from a lower-body injury suffered Dec. 30 at Winnipeg that sidelined him for two weeks.

In his first game back, Gustavsson yielded five goals to Arizona before getting pulled. Next was that loss to the Lightning, but his performance since has looked like a reset, and that’s encouraging for the Wild.

They have three games to go before the bye week and All-Star break, beginning Tuesday vs. Washington at Xcel Energy Center, and Gustavsson could be tasked with starting all three if Fleury isn’t ready to return and Jesper Wallstedt stays in the backup role.

“Last period in Florida, I didn’t think too much. I just played the game,” Gustavsson said. “The Arizona game, you still had those thoughts in your head. ‘Am I perfectly fine? Can I move freely, do as much as I can?’ It felt like that block got away after that third period in Florida there, and it felt like I just moved around freely, didn’t think about it.

“When you don’t think about it, you save the most shots.”