Wallstedt makes his case as Wild win regular-season finale

Q: What was the final score of the Minnesota Wild's regular-season finale against Anaheim?

The Minnesota Wild won the game 3-2 against Anaheim.

Q: Who scored the goals for the Minnesota Wild in their last regular-season game?

Danila Yurov, Robby Fabbri, and Hunter Haight scored the goals for the Wild.

Q: What is Jesper Wallstedt's significance in the Minnesota Wild's playoff lineup?

Jesper Wallstedt's performance in the regular-season finale has raised questions about whether he will be the starting goalie in the playoffs.

Q: When do the Minnesota Wild open their playoff series against Dallas?

The Minnesota Wild are expected to open their playoff series against Dallas on Saturday.

The Minnesota Wild will be rested and generally healthy when they open the playoffs, most likely on Saturday, in Dallas. They will bring perhaps their most talented team in franchise history to North Texas with, perhaps, just one looming question mark about their postseason lineup.

And that question, regarding who will start in goal versus the Stars in Game 1, may have gotten bigger and more complicated in the Wild’s regular-season finale.

Rookie goalie Jesper Wallstedt put on a show, stopping all but two of Anaheim’s 36 shots as the Wild rallied for a 3-2 win on “Fan Appreciation Night” at Grand Casino Arena.

Trailing 1-0 early, the Wild got goals from Danila Yurov, Robby Fabbri and Hunter Haight — his first in the NHL — to finish the regular season with a 46-24-12 record, good for 104 points in the standings.

But the story of the night was Wallstedt, who played the first period wearing a jersey with “WALLSTEAD” on the back, although the spelling error did little to dampen his handiwork.

As coach John Hynes ponders his Game 1 starter, the recent numbers will show that Wallstedt has allowed a total of four goals in his final two regular-season starts, while veteran Filip Gustavsson has been touched for 10 in the same span.

Anaheim, which has qualified for the playoffs but does not yet have its opponent set, opened the scoring on a power-play goal midway through the first period. The Wild responded with Yurov’s second goal in as many nights, a close-range shot that trickled past Ducks goalie Lukas Dostal.

The goal was significant, if for no other reason than it meant for the first time in franchise history, the Wild went an entire regular season without being shut out. Dating back to last season, they have now tied a franchise record by scoring at least one goal in 93 consecutive regular-season games.

Yurov had a golden opportunity to give Minnesota its first lead near the midway point of the game with a breakaway from the far blue line, but he was foiled by a left pad save.

Instead, it was Haight, after a perfect set-up pass from Nick Foligno, popping a wrist shot past the Anaheim goalie’s glove to put the Wild up. Shown on the arena’s video board sporting a huge smile, Haight received a loud ovation when his first goal was announced.

Haight briefly looked to have gotten the first of his career on Monday night in St. Louis. But after pushing the puck, and the Blues goalie’s leg pad, over the goal line, the play was ruled no goal due to goalie interference.

Fabbri slipped a puck over the line late in the game for some insurance. Originally ruled no goal, the call was reversed quickly when replays showed the puck had fully crossed the line. With their goalie pulled, the Ducks got a deflected goal at the 45.6 mark of the third, but Minnesota held off their late charge.

Dostal had 17 saves for the Ducks.

For the second straight night, the Wild sat out a significant number of regulars, with stars like Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, Brock Faber, Quinn Hughes, Mats Zuccarello and others watching from the press box.

Briefly

Yakov Trenin was the only member of the Wild to play in all 82 regular season games. … Prior to the game, the Wild handed out their annual Tom Kurvers Humanitarian Award, given to the Wild player who best exemplifies leadership qualities on and off the ice and has made a noteworthy humanitarian contribution in the State of Hockey. Marcus Foligno was named the winner of the award, named after the former Hobey Baker Award winner from Minnesota Duluth who was long-time NHLer and Wild executive before dying in 2021 following a battle with cancer. The award, which acknowledged the Foligno family’s fundraising efforts in behalf of cancer research, includes a $5,000 donation from the team, which Foligno gifted to the Hendrickson Foundation.