A Win at a High Cost

Obviously I was too lazy after yesterday's afternoon game to post my postgamer so I'm doing it now...

The Wild and Niklas Backstrom shutout the Edmonton Oilers 3-0 yesterday afternoon to move into a tie with Anaheim for ninth place (with Anaheim getting the nod over the Wild with more wins), but it comes at a high price. After the return of Marian Gaborik to the ice since before Christmas break, the Wild lose another important piece to the team in their loss of their captain Mikko Koivu. After coming out of the penalty box, Koivu collided in the offensive zone with an Oilers player, and fell awkwardly. Koivu played the rest of the first period, and part of the second, but did not return for the third period. And it must be serious because the team said that this is a knee injury and not the famous lower body injury term that they've coined this season, but Koivu will be reevaluated today before the team heads out to New York.

So...Koivu's injury overshawdowed a great win for the Wild, an important win for the team. Though they didn't get a great start to the game being outshot by the Oilers 15-2 in the first period, but they came back with a franchise record 23 shots in the 2nd period (isn't that usually their shot total for a game), with Owen Nolan getting first goal on the powerplay by going to the net and getting his own rebound. The Wild built up their lead in the third when Nolan again went to the net and got a great feed from James Sheppard to get the two goal lead. And then Stephane Veilleux scored...well sort of...Veilleux was the closest to the play when Tom Gilbert's pass deflected off of Sam Gagner's skate an past Dwayne Roloson, but I guess when you're a scoring like Veilleux has lately, it'll go in for him. But isn't it refreshing that the Wild had a 3-0 lead, and not trailing by 3-0? Oh...and Gaborik was back and on the ice for 17:43, had 24 shifts, and 6 shots.

Veilleux's Goal


Notes:

• Colton Gilles, Craig Weller, and Peter Olvecky were the healthy scratches; Marek Zidlicky is day-to-day with a lower body injury and Brent Burns is still out with concussion like symptoms.
• Backstrom got his franchise record 16th career shutout, and a franchise record 12th shutout at home, both surpassing...Dwayne Roloson, who now has surpassed Roberto Luongo for most losses against the Wild.
  
• I read the TaR article on SI.com about overrated coaches in the NHL and Jacques Lemaire was named...it was just a small snippet in an NY Post article by Larry Brooks...maybe I drink too much of the kool-aid that the Wild offer, but IMO Lemaire is the only reason why the Wild have been as competitive as they've been, especially early on in their history.
  

UP NEXT: Friday @ New York Rangers, 6:00pm CT (this one is going to be dubbed as Marian Gaborik vs. the New York Rangers and we'll see lots of replay of the 5 goal game leading up to it...but I doubt that this time Gaby's going to get 5 goals again)