Top-4 Goalie Performances in Wild History, Is Devan Dubnyk the Best?

2002-2003 Manny Fernandez

This was a magical season for the Minnesota Wild, just three years into their existence. They had a wonderful thing going between the pipes, splitting games almost evenly between Manny Fernandez and Dwayne Roloson.

Roloson more than deserves mention as he carried the load for most of the season. His final record was 23-16-8, with a 2.00 GAA and .927 SV%

Now, to Fernandez. His regular season numbers were similar to those of Roloson. Manny finished with a record of 19-13-2, with a 2.24 GAA and .924 SV%.

Then came the playoffs. This was the deepest a Minnesota Wild team has ever gone in the post-season, losing in the conference finals to the Ducks. But up to that point, Fernandez stood on his head for the Wild. This wasn’t the Zach Parise, Ryan Suter and Jonas Brodin Minnesota Wild. A very young Marian Gaborik was far and away their best skater.

Fernandez played in 9 playoff games that year and only allowed 1.96 goals per game in the most crucial time to do it. Most notably, in game 7 of the first round, Manny was the reason the Wild advanced. He out-dueled Patrick Roy in stopping 43 of 45 pucks on the road and the Wild pulled it out in overtime against the Avalanche.

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