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Ohgren, Wild's special teams elite, impresses in preseason finale: Takeaways vs. Blackhawks

The Minnesota Wild played most of their expected regular lineup and closed out the preseason with a 6-1 exhibition win over the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center on Friday night.

Mats Zuccarello scored a goal and two assists and Marco Rossi scored a goal and an assist. Brock Faber, Kirill Kaprizov and Marcus Johansson each scored a goal and Jonas Brodin scored one of the sneakiest goals you'll see from the red line.

Just four seconds after Rossi's power-play goal, Brodin faked a puck and then deflected a shot past an unsuspecting Petr Mrazek as the goalie left his cage to play the puck.

Joel Eriksson Ek had two assists and Marc-Andre Fleury made 21 saves, helping the Wild finish the preseason with a 4-2 record.

However, when the Wild played in Thursday's opener against the Columbus Blue Jackets with a lineup close to the lineup they're likely to field, they took a 3-0 lead. In two games in which they played much of Chicago's expected opening lineup, the Wild outscored the Blackhawks 13-3.

The only starters who didn't play Friday were the injured Matt Boldy and Jake Middleton, who are expected to be ready by opening night, and veteran defenseman Zach Bogosian.

Zuccarello and Eriksson Ek finished the preseason tied with eight points in three games, leading the team. Kaprizov led the Wild with four goals in three games and had seven points. Fleury had two wins and Jesper Wallstedt and Filip Gustavsson had one each.

The Wild will not practice on Saturday or Sunday. They plan to submit their opening night roster to the NHL as early as Monday. They have decisions to make on newcomers Liam Ohgren, Daemon Hunt, Wallstedt and Ben Jones. To save space, they could opt to send all four to Iowa early in the season if they aren't in the opening lineup.

Elite special teams

Preseason means nothing and often doesn't translate, but the Wild's special teams were dominant in the preseason. They scored two more power play goals on Friday and are tied for the league lead with the Florida Panthers on nine goals.

They went 9-17 last season and lead the league with a power play rate of 52.9 percent. Kaprizov had three of them.

More importantly, their penalty kill, which ranked 30th in the NHL last season, was 4 of 4 on Friday and finished the preseason at 21 of 25. That was a good 84 percent, which ranks 8th in the NHL.

The Wild have spent the entire preseason looking for the right personnel for the penalty kill, which they plan to make more aggressive this season.

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Marco Rossi ends the camp strongly

After a poor start to his exhibition season, where he was a team-worst minus-4 in a loss to Dallas, Rossi finished with two goals and three assists in his final three exhibition games.

He scored an outstanding power play goal on Friday and set up Zuccarello's goal in a four-on-three system. He played the first two periods on Friday between Kaprizov and Zuccarello. Eriksson Ek came on in the third period when coach John Hynes targeted his three top centers.

Rossi seems to have the overview.

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Ohgren starts slow and finishes strong

Ohgren may not make the opening night starting lineup as he likely won't be in the top 12, but after a rocky start to camp, the Wild have to be overjoyed with how much better he has gotten in his last three games.

He was slow and indecisive at the start of camp, but after talking to Hynes he just got better. He was quick, strong with the puck and made perfectly executed give-and-go plays with Johansson on Friday.

Ohgren would benefit from time in Iowa, and with Boldy expected to start the season, that would likely be the right move as he was more of a placeholder on the second line as camp progressed.

(Photo: Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

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