HHS goes Wild over playoffs
Apr 16, 2015
As the Minnesota Wild enter the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs on Thursday April 16, HHSstudents hope they bring home Minnesota’s first ever Stanley Cup. The Wild’s rollercoaster season has taken its toll on the HHS faithful, but this school and community believes that they can and will raise the Stanley Cup come June. As Game 1 of the playoffs approaches, students at HHS showed their “Wild fever” by wearing Wild jerseys, player t-shirts and sweatshirts.
Sydney Craven, junior, poses with her wild shirt.
The Wild came into this season poised to do something special. They started off the season as one of the hottest teams in the National Hockey League. However, the hot start soon petered out for the Wild as they plummeted into the bottom of the standings in Nov. and Dec. The main problem for the team was their goaltending. Wild General Manager Chuck Fletcher looked far and wide for a goalie, and on Jan. 14, Fletcher and the Wild found their season-saving acquisition of Devan Dubnyk.
Preston Dull, junior, poses with his wild shirt.
With the Wild, Dubnyk started 38 straight games and posted a record of 27-9-2, sending the Wild back to playoffs for the third straight season.
There are many die-hard fans that go to HHS and are planning on watching all the games that they can. Leo Tapper, junior, is one of those die hard fans. Tapper has been a season ticket holder for 13 years.
“It is great to see the Wild play and I think we will win the [Stanley] Cup if Dubnyk can play as well as he has been playing,” Tapper said.
Carl Miller, sophomore, is another faithful Wild fan and believes that they can bring home a Cup.
“I feel like the key to the Wild winning the Cup is our goaltending – since we’ve acquired Dubnyk, we have the best record in the NHL. Also a very important part of us going far in the playoffs is keeping our players healthy,” Miller said.
The Wild open up round one of the playoffs facing the St. Louis Blues. The Blues tied the Anaheim Ducks for the number one spot in the Western Conference, but since the Ducks own the tiebreaker the Ducks claimed the West.
As the end of the regular season came to a close for the Wild, they faced three of their potential first round opponents in the Blackhawks, Predators, and the Blues. The Wild won two of their last three games and ended the season on a very high note, securing the Western Conference number one Wild Card spot.