Wild Limit Reigning President Trophy Winner, Win 2-1

The Wild by far played one of its better games against the Washington Capitals last night, holding them scoreless until the last 1:36 of the game when Alexander Ovechkin scored spoiling Niklas Backstrom's shut out.  The Wild put out a solid effort defensively against a offensive juggernaut with the likes of Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Alexander Semin, and Mike Green, holding them to 22 shots in the game (4-7-11=22), and it didn't hurt that the Capitals were in Carolina the night before.

Chuck Kobasew scored the first goal of the game, his first point of the season, in the first period burying a great feed across the goal crease by Andrew Brunette.  Kobasew, who has been bothered by a groin injury this season, was moved to the first line with Antti Miettinen not playing because of an illness, played well along side Brunette and Mikko Koivu.  Koivu would later score the game winning goal late in the second period with the Wild on powerplay and with a delayed penalty being called.

Backstrom was just solid last night, making the easy saves along with a couple spectacular ones like this post to post save on Mike Knuble on the powerplay.

Backstrom, along with the defensive corps, was able to stymie the Capitals, frustrating them at times.  Brent Burns and Nick Schultz were a solid defensive pairing, and were often pitted against Ovechkin.  Just a good solid 60-minute effort by the Wild, one of the few ones that fans have seen in a long time.  If the Wild could play like this the rest of the season they'd be set =).

Notes:

•  I'm really starting to like Justin Falk-Clayton Stoner d-pairing.  For a pair of rookie defensemen they haven't made any glaring mistakes, they've just been solid.  Stoner didn't play well in camp so I had my reserves about him and Falk has impressed me so far.
• With all eyes on Martin Havlat after his agent Allan Walsh comments on his underuse in the Wild lineup, he did nada.  Havlat ended the night with one shot in 17:27 of ice time.
• Colton Gillies played his first NHL game since the 2008-2009 season and Casey Wellman made his home debut.  Gillies and Wellman replaced Guillame Latendresse (groin) and Miettinen (illness).
• When a sellout streak stops, it really stops.  I was surprised that the X wasn't sold out seeing as it was the Caps the Wild were playing.
• The Wild took only 2 penalties last night...YAY!

UP NEXT: Saturday vs. Chicago Blackhawks, 7:00pm CT

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Wild's Powerplay Prevails Over Oilers

With so much hoopla surrounding the team and the team itself putting an emphasis on the game, home openers are always my favorite games to go to.  The pre-game ceremonies were well done, as usual, with the introduction of some members of the inaugural (loudest ovation going to Darby and Walz), the announcement of the number one moment (Bruno's OT goal, obvious), and the introduction of the roster.  On to the game...

The Wild had a good game, not a solid 60 minutes (and as a Wild fan you start to expect the Wild to only play 2 solid periods of good hockey), but at least a good 45 minutes. The Wild came out pretty well in the first period, but they got bogged down by penalty troubles.  The Edmonton Oilers weren't able to connect on their powerplay chances early on as the penalty killers were on their game last night.  Antti Miettinen was able to get the Wild into the 2nd period with a 1-0 lead but the Wild did what they always do and came out sluggish in the 2nd.  For the first 10-15 minutes of the game it was all Edmonton, with Dustin Penner's powerplay tally and Tom Gilbert's rocket off of the face-off giving them a 2-1 advantage, but you never really felt like the game was out of the reach for the Wild.  The Wild were able to tally 3 unanswered goals, all on the powerplay,  two from Mikko Koivu and from Matt Cullen, and essentially put the game away.

Obviously the Wild was great on the powerplay against the Oilers going 4 for 6 last night and generating great opportunities with Cullen at the point and Brunette behind the net, the real question now will be whether or nor the Wild can generate those same chances even strength.  The pkers have to be the unsung heroes of the night with some debatable calls, but they were able to keep the Oilers in check sans the Penner goal.

Notes:

• Loud ovation for Pierre-Marc Bouchard when the players who weren't dressed were announced...and I giggled to myself at the polite applause when James Sheppard was announced (though I kind of felt bad when I saw him wave).
• I'm totally in love with Cullen now.  He was great on the powerplay and I definitely noticed him, in a good way, everytime he was on the ice. 
• Honestly, I didn't really notice the Oilers' young phenoms.  Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle were non-factors throughout the game, and I only noticed Magnus Paajarvi because of his size and him drawing penalities (and occasionally falling down).
• I don't really like the new game programs, it's probably because it's still the same price as the old ones but now they're smaller (just a folded up poster-sized paper).
• Oh, and I'm kind of late on this, but a great article by Mike Russo on former Wild now Oiler Kurtis Foster.
• Question: Were the refs in this game NHL refs or replacement refs because some of the calls were absurd.

UP NEXT: Saturday vs. Columbus Blue Jackets, 7:00pm CT

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