Stars, 1 vs. Wild, 3

It's just a little too late for the Wild to have any hopes of making the playoffs. With the St. Louis Blues handily defeating the Phoenix Coyotes last night, the Wild made no ground with their 3-1 win over the Dallas Stars and still remain 3 points out of the eighth and final spot in the playoffs. And with the Blues' win, the Wild's fatal number is now ONE. Well, at least Nashville lost to Chicago, so the Wild are one point behind them for ninth, and Edmonton lost to Los Angeles and are now mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.

On to something less depressing: the game...the first period didn't start out well for the Wild as they didn't register a shot on goal until almost the half way point of the period, but from then on, they had a better game. Marian Gaborik got the scoring going, as he got a great feed from Andrew Brunette to make it a 1-0 score by the end of the first period. A couple of powerplay goals by Eric Belanger and Owen Nolan and some great saves by Niklas Backstrom and the Wild start the third period with a 3-0 lead. Fabian Brunnstrom scored for the Dallas Stars in the third to end Backstrom's bid for a shutout, but all in all, the Wild played a solid game...and with only TWO games left in the season, I'd rather not dwell on the bad...well, that is until I do the season recap.

"Buy your tickets. Get in line. It'll be interesting." -- Lemaire on Friday's game

Notes:

• Scratches: Derek Boogaard, Craig Weller (listed as out with a concussion, but when did he get a concussion or is it the lingering effects of the one he had earlier in the season?), Brent Burns, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Nick Schultz.
• At least now we know when Burns got his concussion:

  "Burns got a concussion in practice after the January All-Star Game, yet he played through it until two hits were the final straw during a March 5 game at San Jose." ~ Michael Russo, Star Tribune
  

• I love Adrian Peterson, but he totally gaffed on the "Let's Play Hockey" call...so much for "practice makes perfect" right. Well, at least it wasn't a misplay on the word "puck".
  
  
• With Schultz missing the game because of a head injury, Antti Miettinen and James Sheppard remain the only players to have played in all 80 games this season.
• In 15 games this season, Gaborik is 11-7-18, since his return he is 8-5-13 in 9 games and is riding a five game point streak, and in his 500th game he had a 1-2-3 night.
  
• With his 25th goal of the season, Nolan becomes the 4th player in franchise history to reach the 25 goal mark in a Wild uniform. Others who did it, Gaborik - five times, Brian Rolston - three times, Pavol Demitra - one time; the trend here, no Rolston, no Demitra, and soon, no Gaborik.
• Stats of the night: Clutterbuck - TOI 16:38, 8 SOG, 6 Hits, 2 Blocked Shots
• Gosh...those players' jerseys look HUGE!
  

• Hope that all of you caught this yesterday, but if you didn't, former Minnesota Wild forward Jim Dowd officially announced his retirement on NHL Live after playing 17 seasons with 10 NHL teams.
  

UP NEXT: Friday vs. Nashville Predators, 7:00pm CT