Wild Goaltender Named First Star of Week

At times this season, Minnesota Wild goaltender Filip Gustavsson has almost taken a backseat to his own backup Marc-Andre Fleury, who is set to retire at the end of the year.

That has not been the case lately, though.

Gustavsson, 26, has been on an absolute tear as of late, stopping 82 of 84 shots over his past three games. He stopped 28 of 29 shots in a 3-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on March 17, bringing an end to their five-game winning streak, then earned a 34-save shutout in a 4-0 win over the Seattle Kraken on Wednesday, and finally stopped 20 of 21 shots in a 4-1 win over the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday.

On Monday, the NHL named Gustavsson its First Star of the Week after three very strong perfoamcnes. This is the Swedish goalie's fourth time being one of the weekly three stars, and second this season after being the Third Star of the Week ending on Oct. 20.

Make no mistake, Gustavsson has been exceptional all season. He boasts a .917 save percentage and 2.48 goals against average, ranking in the top 10 among goalies with at least 24 games played in both categories. He also has a 28-15-4 record in 48 starts.

“He's young and he looks good,” Wild forward Ryan Hartman said after the win over the Kraken. “He's steady, he doesn't necessarily have to make too many flashy saves because he’s well-positioned out there. That's always a good sign of feeling the game.”

The Wild have cooled off substantially since their red-hot start to the season, but will almost certainly still be in the playoffs as a wild card team or even one of the top three in the Central Division. While their offense has suffered with Kirill Kaprizov sidelined for the past few months, Gustavsson has done his part to keep the team afloat.