Sports can be unexpected at times and what we saw today in the Minnesota Wild and Nashville Predators game was very unexpected. With the Wild and Predators tied 3-3 in overtime, the Wild elected to pull their goalie. Within moments, Matt Boldy scored his 24th goal of season to win it in overtime 4-3.
With this win, the Wild are still 6 points back of the final playoff spot, so some may say, its worth the risk. However, here where the issue lies, per rule 84.2 of the NHL, if a team pull their goaltender in the overtime period, the team forfeits their automatic point gain for ending the game in regulation as a tie if their opponent scores in the empty net during the overtime period.
If the Nashville Predators would have scored in the empty net during overtime, the Minnesota Wild would have gained zero point towards the standings. Based off where they are at in the standings, you can make the case, that losing that automatic point is not worth the risk. However, desperate times called for desperate measures for the Minnesota Wild and it paid off.
