Avalanche, 2 vs. Wild, 3 SO

Mikko Koivu said that it may have been the biggest goal of the year so far for the team, it probably is the biggest goal in Nick Schultz's career (seeing as he only has 21 career goals in 7 seasons in the NHL), but it was the overall effort of the play that created the game-tying goal with 1:46 left in regulation that draws my praise. It was an unbelievable play (and great effort) by Eric Belanger to keep the puck from going over the blue line and getting it to Dan Fritsche, who eventually feed the puck to Schultz for his second goal of the season, and first since December 20 in St. Louis a span of 38 games. The Wild started the game out well, getting good scoring chances (a couple from Boogey), but after a good powerplay from the Wild when Cody McCormick took a penalty, the Avalanche turned on the pressure and were getting better scoring opportunities. The game went into the second with no scoring until Cody McLeod scored 9:21 into the second off of a Ben Guite wrap around. Stephane Veilleux scored 1:44 after McLeod tying the game at 1 when he tipped in a Martin Skoula shot from the point. Ryan Smyth scored almost 3 minutes after to give Colorado the one goal lead going into the third period, and then fans just got a sinking feeling going into the third look at the Avs stats: the Avs were 19-0-0 going into the third with a lead. For as bad as a team that Colorado has been this season, those were numbers that you wished that you could just ignore, and when Nick Schultz tied the game with just under two minutes to go in regulation, I was just glad that they got a point. The game eventually went into the shootout where Niklas Backstrom was able to stop Milan Hejduk and Marek Svatos (Wojtek Wolski scored...don't feel bad Backs, he's the NHL's best shootout scorer, going 10 for 11 this season) as Koivu and Marek Zidlicky (Pierre-Marc Bouchard was stopped)scored on Peter Budaj for the win, and the two points.

How good does a WIN make you feel?...at least for a couple of hours.

Notes:

• Happy birthday to Craig Weller yesterday! And his birthday present was being the healthy scratch for the Wild, along with John Scott and Colton Gillies. Brent Burns is still out and according to Russo, it'll be a while before Burns gets back.

• Kurtis Foster was back in the lineup for his second game of the season, his home debut, and his first game back at the X in a exactly a year, ironically it was against the Colorado Avalanche.

• Zidlicky is now 3 for 5 in shootouts as all 3 of his goals in the shootout have been the shootout deciding goal.

• Tom Reid, the Wild's color analyst on the radio, has shut it down to recuperate from knee surgery; Kevin Falness, the Wild's radio producer, will be filling in for Reid.

• 5 of the last 8 games for the Wild have needed extra sessions to decide the winner, in those five games the Wild have won 2 (one in OT, one in SO) and lost 3 (two in OT, one in SO).

• The Wild's April 5th game at Detroit has been picked up by NBC, so instead of a 4:00pm CT game start the game will start at 11:30am CT; it is only the 2nd time in franchise history that the Wild will be televised on NBC. NBC has also picked up a Detroit, Chicago game at the end of the season (and here I thought that NBC only thought that there were four teams in the NHL).

UP NEXT: Friday @ New Jersey Devils, 6:00pm CT (great...we get a well rested Martin Brodeur, because he won't be playing tonight against the Hurricanes, coming off of his 552nd NHL leading win...that's just wonderful!)