Bruins-Wild 3 Stars: Niklas Svedberg Makes 35 Saves In Stellar Outing

The Boston Bruins snapped a three-game losing streak with a 3-2 overtime win over the Minnesota Wild on Wednesday night at Xcel Energy Center.

Veteran center David Krejci returned to the lineup after missing the last 11 games with an undisclosed injury, and the Bruins’ offense scored three goals for just the third time in the last 11 games.

Carl Soderberg and Patrice Bergeron each ended goal-less droughts of 12-plus games, which should help their confidence heading into the final game of the road trip Friday night against the Winnipeg Jets.

Here are the “3 Stars” from Bruins-Wild:

No. 3 Star: Carl Soderberg, Center, Bruins
Soderberg ended a 15-game goal-less drought with a first-period tally. He also tallied three shots, a plus-2 rating and won 58 percent of his faceoffs in 19:21 of ice time (2:19 on the power play). Soderberg ranks second on the Bruins in scoring with 21 points (six goals, 15 assists) in 32 games.

No. 2 Star: Loui Eriksson, Right Wing, Bruins
Eriksson is starting to produce more offensively, and his game-winning goal in overtime was his third tally in the last five games.

Eriksson also made a nice pass on Soderberg’s first-period goal that opened the scoring. Eriksson tallied one shot, a plus-2 rating and one hit in 18:18 of ice time (2:12 on the power play, 0:20 on the penalty kill).

No. 1 Star: Niklas Svedberg, Goaltender, Bruins
Svedberg gave Boston an excellent performance in net with 35 saves on 37 shots against for a .946 save percentage. The Swedish netminder had traffic in front of his crease all throughout the game, but he stayed composed and maintained his position.

Svedberg secured the Bruins’ lead in the second period by making 20 saves on 20 shot attempts, including two stops when his team was defending a 5-on-3 Wild power play for 1:13. He made five short-handed saves overall.

Svedberg also made nine saves in the third period and overtime combined, including a three-save sequence late in regulation.

Svedberg now has a .925 save percentage on the season and has given up two goals or fewer in four of his last six appearances.

GIFs via Twitter/@PeteBlackburn

Thumbnail photo via Timothy T. Ludwig/USA TODAY Sports Images