ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota Wild coach John Hynes changed goalies for Game 2 against the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday, turning to Filip Gustavsson after Jesper Wallstedt absorbed the loss in a 9-6 Game 1 defeat.
Wallstedt had played Minnesota’s first seven playoff games, but Hynes said the switch came after the rookie allowed eight goals on 42 shots Sunday, with seven of them at five-on-five. Gustavsson, who started 49 of 82 regular-season games, was slated to get the net as the Wild tried to level a second-round series that suddenly looks unsettled on both sides.
Hynes said the decision was made with the bigger picture in mind. “Every time you make a decision, I think in a lineup decision, you take a lot of things into account,” he said, adding that Minnesota has “two very good goalies all year long” and “confidence in both of our goalies.” He said the move gave Gustavsson “a good opportunity to get Gus in the net” because he is “hungry to get in,” and that Wallstedt had “taken the brunt of the playoffs” by playing seven straight games. Hynes also pointed back to the regular season, when Minnesota rotated the two goalies and expected Gustavsson to enter the year as the starter, with Wallstedt still a rookie.
The numbers give both sides a case. Wallstedt finished the regular season with a.916 save rate, while Gustavsson posted a.904 mark. Colorado’s expected starter, Scott Wedgewood, allowed six goals in Game 1, and backup Mackenzie Blackwood and Wedgewood split starts during the regular season. Wedgewood carried a.924 save percentage in that span, compared with Blackwood’s.904. Colorado coach Jared Bednar did not name his starter for Game 2, leaving the Avalanche’s crease just as open as Minnesota’s. That uncertainty is one reason the series now feels like a goaltending carousel, the sort of spring scramble that has shown up across the league and made even NBA postseason chaos like Cavs Score look tame by comparison.
Wallstedt’s run was already notable before the switch. He had gone through Minnesota’s first seven playoff games, and Hynes acknowledged he had dealt with not playing for a while before Game 2. But Sunday’s loss was hard to ignore: eight goals against, 42 shots faced, and enough damage to force a change before the series could get away from the Wild. Colorado, for its part, has its own questions after Wedgewood was tagged for six goals and Bednar declined to settle the matter publicly.
If the split carries through the rest of the Western Conference semifinal, both teams could end up using all four goalies before it is over. For now, Minnesota is betting that Gustavsson steadies it long enough to make the series look different than the 9-6 opener, and Colorado is still deciding whether Wedgewood gets the next turn.
