Wild lose captain, get hat trick, weather 3 goals in final minute
When the original ownership of the Minnesota Wild chose the franchise’s name in the late 1990s, they must have had Tuesday night in mind. Because the good people of Columbus, Ohio, who saw their Blue Jackets play host to Minnesota were certainly treated to a wild affair at Nationwide Arena.
The first -- and scariest -- moment came little over a minute into the game, when Blue Jackets defenseman David Savard rode Minnesota captain Mikko Koivu into the board following a dump-in. Koivu lost his edge going full speed and slammed into the boards back-first. The collision was so hard, Koivu’s body sprung into the air and he landed again on the ice, perhaps even hitting his head.
He skated back to the bench but was taken to the hospital shortly thereafter.
Wild captain Koivu hospitalized after crashing into boards https://t.co/bCuaMl2Hwa
— NHL on NBC (@NHLonNBCSports) January 6, 2016
Before the night was over, the Wild tweeted some good news on Koivu.
Mikko Koivu went to a Columbus hospital for precautionary reasons during tonight's game. He will fly home with #mnwild tonight.
— Minnesota Wild (@mnwild) January 6, 2016
There was also good news on the ice for Minnesota as Zach Parise netted a hat trick with the Wild’s first three goals Tuesday night -- one in each period. It was a particularly noteworthy hat trick, to boot.
Zach Parise scored his 4th career hat trick & 2nd in 2015-16. He is 2nd @mnwild player w/ multiple hat tricks in a season (M. Gaborik: 3x).
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 6, 2016
But it was that third goal from Parise that really broke up the floodgates of crazy. With less than a minute to play, the Wild led, 2-1. Then …
● 19:03 -- MINNESOTA goal (Parise): Wild 3, Blue Jackets 1
● 19:44 -- COLUMBUS goal (Foligno): Wild 3, Blue Jackets 2
● 19:46 -- MINNESOTA goal (Granlund): Wild 4, Blue Jackets 2
And some history, to boot: The two goals two seconds apart tied an NHL record set by St. Louis and Boston on Dec. 19, 1987.
-- The Associated Press contributed to this report
