LAS VEGAS — The image of Ryan Hartman smiling during his Wayne Gretzky-like Running Man celebration late in Game 5 looked like it would be forever etched in franchise lore.
The Minnesota Wild forward was oh-so-close to the biggest goal of his career, the go-ahead tally that would have put them one win away from beating the Vegas Golden Knights and reaching the ever-elusive second round.
But in a season full of gut punches, this might have been the hardest, with a coach’s challenge revealing Gustav Nyquist was clearly offside, negating the goal in what turned out to be a crushing 3-2 overtime loss at T-Mobile Arena. The Wild, who also lost Game 4 in overtime with a chance to take a 3-1 series lead, will now face elimination in Thursday’s Game 6, trailing Vegas 3-2 in the best-of-seven series.
“Inches, right?” goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said.
“It sucks,” defenseman Brock Faber said.
The Wild said all the right things in a quiet dressing room postgame. The scar tissue built up from all the adversity they dealt with all season should help them now. They lost, but feel they’ve played well enough to win each of the five games against the heavily favored Golden Knights.
“This thing is far from over,” Faber said. “They’ve still got to beat us. We’re going to be ready for war on Thursday.”
“The belief,” Fleury said, “is there.”
ERIKSSON-EK TO BOLDY, WE’RE TIED IN THE THIRD 😱 pic.twitter.com/oCYE6LPcUS
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 30, 2025
Fleury could have been the feel-good story.
He made a surprising relief appearance to start the third period when No. 1 Filip Gustavsson fell ill. Just 3 1/2 minutes into Fleury’s arrival, Matt Boldy sped down the right wing, cut to the net and tied the game at 2-2 with his fifth goal of the series.
The Wild then protected Fleury valiantly, holding Vegas to three third-period shots and none until the 13:43 mark.
He entered the series cold in his first game in two weeks and stopped six of seven shots, but Brett Howden beat him when left wide open for a one-timer from the slot four minutes into OT.
Coach John Hynes wouldn’t address the breakdown on the last shift that started with the coaches throwing the fourth line on the ice at the same time as the third defense pair. It was Yakov Trenin and Justin Brazeau’s fourth shift each since the second period. Most defensive-zone coverages can withstand one mistake, but when you make two or three on the same shift, that’s how a player ends up as wide open as Howden was in the slot.
Zach Bogosian didn’t intercept a puck along the wall. Marco Rossi got caught in between and didn’t intercept a pass to the front. And Jon Merrill, who replaced rookie Zeev Buium in Game 5 because, ironically, the coaches didn’t trust playing Buium in overtime in Game 4, didn’t check off his guy soon enough and was left reaching at Howden.
BRETT HOWDEN OVERTIME WINNER 🤩
VEGAS TAKES THIS ONE IN @ENERGIZER OT AND ARE ONE WIN AWAY FROM ADVANCING! #StanleyCup pic.twitter.com/MjK2GuNPNJ
— NHL (@NHL) April 30, 2025
But this game will be remembered for how Hartman’s goal got wiped off the board.
Hartman, who is having a tremendous series, motored through the neutral zone, carried the puck over the blue line and powered to the net and scored what he thought was the go-ahead goal with 75 seconds left in regulation, then marched back to the blue line as an elated Nyquist embraced him.
Hartman’s goal was initially reviewed to ensure he didn’t kick the puck in.
He did not.
But then Vegas challenged, and it was clear that Nyquist preceded the puck into the offensive zone.
“It saved our ass,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said.
Ryan Hartman gives #MNWild the lead late but was it offside??? pic.twitter.com/cKlaNpkAks
— SasquatchNHL (@SasquatchNHL) April 30, 2025
Hockey is a game of mistakes, but you’d expect a 35-year-old with 945 games of NHL experience to be more alert than to stray offside at such a critical time.
This certainly wasn’t the impact on a game the Wild hoped Nyquist would make when they reacquired him from Nashville.
You could tell by Nyquist’s reaction on the bench — putting his head down — that he took this hard. It’s been a struggle offensively for Nyquist since he was brought back at the trade deadline for a 2026 second-round pick. He’s got just two goals in 27 games with the Wild, including the playoffs. He has just one shot on goal in this series, none since Game 1.
But Hynes has stood by the veteran, saying before the game that Nyquist “understands how to play in these environments. He’s very responsible and adds to our penalty kill. There’s lots of value to having a player like him in your lineup.”
The Wild did not make Nyquist available to the media postgame.
“It happens 50 times a game,” said Hartman, who has caused goals to be overturned in the past for being offside. “Just happened to be it was on a goal. You feel bad, but (nothing Nyquist) should feel down about.”
“It’s part of the game,” Boldy said. “That’s what the cameras are for, unfortunately. … I thought we played a great game tonight.”
The reality is this sport can be cruel sometimes, and for a franchise that desperately wants to finally shed the “first-round exit” tag, the Wild once again played well enough to win and relied on the strong play of Gustavsson in the first two periods to keep the deficit to one.
Fleury came on, and with 1:15 left, it sure looked like he was close to his 93rd career playoff win, which would have moved him into third all-time past Grant Fuhr.
The Wild defended hard, protected the middle and got some tremendous shifts from every forward and defenseman in the third period. Guys like Rossi were blocking shots left and right. Kirill Kaprizov, who scored a first-period goal, and Boldy were pressing for offense. Faber exuded so much energy, it was amazing he could put a sentence together after the game.
“There’s highs and lows always, and we’re a couple inches away from this game being over,” he said.
The Wild have done many things right in this series. Their best players have been their best players, with Boldy and Kaprizov coming through with clutch goals (10 in all) and 16 points. They’re getting strong goaltending from Gustavsson. They’ve shown resilience by rallying, including coming from behind Tuesday night. Heck, they’re even killing penalties — three more in Game 5, including one due to a peculiar coach’s challenge of Mark Stone’s go-ahead goal in the first period.
This isn’t the Wild of previous playoff failures, when they shrank from the moment or lost their composure. Vegas might have been favored, but Minnesota has had them on the ropes at times.
How the Wild responds in the next few days will determine how the story of their season is written, and whether they’ll return to Vegas for a Saturday Game 7.
“We’re feeling good. We’re confident in our game,” Boldy said. “We know that we play the right way, that we can beat this team, I think that we’ve just got to kind of put that one behind us, stay positive. I guess, take the good, fix the bad and kind of just keep our energy up. I think that’s the biggest thing. You can’t be deflated. It’s a series. You go back home, you use the fans, you try to win that game, then anything happens in Game 7.”
Added Fleury, “By no means is this over.”
(Photo: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)