John Hynes sends strong message with Game 2 goalie decision vs Avalanche
Minnesota head coach John Hynes confirmed Tuesday afternoon that Filip Gustavsson gets the crease for Game 2 against Colorado, pulling Jesper Wallstedt after a brutal Game 1.
Elliotte Friedman dropped the news at 2:05 PM, less than six hours before puck drop in Saint Paul.
Wallstedt allowed 8 goals in Game 1, with the ninth being an empty-netter in a 9-6 loss on the road.
That's a hook nobody saw coming a week ago.
The 23-year-old had been Hynes' guy for the entire first round against Dallas. He started every game of that six-game series and helped close it out.
His playoff numbers reflect the workload. 7 games played, 4 wins, 2 losses in regulation, a .903 save percentage.
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Why Filip Gustavsson takes the crease tonight
The veteran has been watching from the bench for weeks now. Gustavsson logged 50 games in the regular season, posted 19 wins and 4 shutouts, with the same .903 save percentage as his understudy.
Tonight, he's the Wild's stopper again.
The cap math is also in the room. Gustavsson carries a $3.75 million hit. Wallstedt sits at $2.2 million.
Hynes is putting the higher-priced goalie back where the front office wanted him from training camp.
Minnesota built this season on home ice. The Wild went 23-10-8 at Xcel Energy Center and finished seventh overall with a 46-24-12 record.
That foundation gets tested tonight against an Avalanche team that already torched them once.
The bigger story is the gut-check on Wallstedt. He carried the team past Dallas, then walked into a buzzsaw against Colorado.
Hooking a kid after one bad night is the coldest part of playoff hockey. Hynes did it anyway.
What about the structure in front of the goalie? Eight goals against does not happen in a vacuum.
The Wild gave up odd-man rush after odd-man rush in Game 1, and no goalie alive bails out a team defending like that.
If Gustavsson sees the same chaos tonight, the goalie controversy becomes the smallest problem in the building.
Hynes bought himself one game. Maybe.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 4, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Nikolaj Ehlers | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Mitch Marner | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Jackson Blake | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Ivan Barbashev | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Sean Couturier | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jamie Drysdale | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Mikael Granlund | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Taylor Hall | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Brett Howden | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Seth Jarvis | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Rasmus Andersson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| John Carlson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Pavel Dorofeyev | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Carl Grundstrom | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jackson Lacombe | - | 1 | 1 | |
| K'Andre Miller | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jordan Staal | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Sean Walker | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | - | - | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||