Kirill Kaprizov and Auston Matthews have dominated the NHL recently, going on tears that added even more intrigue to the matchup on Saturday between two rolling teams in the Wild and Maple Leafs.
Reliable Wild line steals the show in victory over Maple Leafs
Jordan Greenway, Marcus Foligno and Joel Eriksson Ek, entrusted with checking Auston Matthews' line, did so — and contributed two goals.
December 6, 2021 at 1:42PM
But neither player's line stole the show.
That distinction belonged to the Wild's tried-and-true trio of Jordan Greenway, Joel Eriksson Ek and Marcus Foligno.
They not only kept Matthews in check at 5-on-5 but also chipped in two key goals during a 4-3 shootout victory at Xcel Energy Center that extended the team's win streak to a season-high six games.
Next up is the opportunity to upstage another superstar when the Wild kicks off a four-game road trip on Tuesday at Edmonton against the league's reigning MVP, Connor McDavid.
"They're gonna come out, and they're gonna want to beat us," Greenway said. "Everyone's gonna want to beat us right now. So, we got to be ready for that and we got to be ready to respond."
The Greenway, Eriksson Ek and Foligno combination was locked in against Toronto.
They helped the Wild nab momentum early when Greenway ran into Matthews, a collision that wrapped up the feeling-out process of the game.
While Foligno was serving a penalty for fighting with the Maple Leafs' Wayne Simmonds in the aftermath of Greenway's hit, his linemates supplied the game's first goal. Greenway capitalized on the rebound from a Matt Dumba shot that Eriksson Ek got a piece of for Greenway's second goal over the past three games.
When Foligno was back in action, he buried a fortuitous bounce off the referee in the second period to up the Wild's cushion to 3-0, with another assist for Eriksson Ek.
This sequence, like others in the game, was a throwback to how the line thrived last season when it became the Wild's most consistent group: all three players were shutting down another team's top line by not actually defending them but rather making them defend the Wild.
"We don't want them to be stuck in our zone the whole night," coach Dean Evason said. "They do the right things through the neutral zone. They simplify coming out. They're all three really big men that have really good reach, so it's hard to get pucks past them.
"They were able to disrupt and turn pucks over and keep pucks in and once they get it on their tape, it's hard to get off."
After Foligno's goal, the Wild wobbled — giving up three in a row to Toronto in the second period, two of which came on the power play.
Still, the Greenway-Eriksson Ek-Foligno line was a force. They were a combined plus-5, racked up nine shots and totaled five hits. The 22 minutes, 13 seconds Eriksson Ek played was the most among Wild forwards.
"I wish they never got tired," Evason said, "especially in the second period. We would just like [those] guys [to] stay on the ice."
Kaprizov and Matthews still made an impact.
Both picked up assists on power play goals, with Matthews also scoring the equalizer on the power play. They also dazzled in the shootout: Kaprizov followed up Matthews' quick-moving backhander with a flick shot that sailed just under the crossbar, his second shootout goal in four career attempts.
Kaprizov's finish was also the game-deciding goal, and the Wild arrived at the point in part to the clinic put on by Greenway, Eriksson Ek and Foligno.
And with the Oilers the Wild's next opponent, the line has a chance to serve up a meaningful encore.
"They were great," Dumba said. "They rose to the challenge, and we're gonna need more of that from them as we play better teams."
A 7-1 loss to Edmonton came with back-to-back home games just ahead and another injury in place, as the Wild placed defenseman Jake Middleton on IR and claimed veteran Travis Dermott off waivers.
