Wild Rally Back from 3-0 to Win 4-3 in OT

It's a good thing that I decided not to leave the home opener early like I was planning to after it was 3-0 at the end of 2, but who would have blamed me or anyone who left after 2 the way that the Wild were playing.

The first period was uneventful, mainly because most people in attendance were still wrapped up with the Twin-Tigers game (and the crowd roared with applause and cheer when the Twins won). The second period was just an utter disaster. Passes weren't on target, the Wild couldn't get any sustained pressure in the offensive zone, and when the Wild were able to get shots, they were either not on target or they were shooting into the body of Ducks player (note that they were shooting into the Ducks player, not that the Ducks players were blocking them). And like Richards said in his postgame, the defensemen were trying to create something that wasn't there and stepping up in the offensive zone at unnecessary times creating odd man rushed (I saw a 4-on-1 twice) and the Wild, like in the Columbus game, were scrambling in their defensive zone, and just like that it was 3-0 Ducks. The lazy and lackluster play of the first 40 minutes of the game took the fans out of the game, but the turning point in the game has to be the George Parros vs. John Scott fight, it definitely woke the crowd up again.



Mikko Koivu, Petr Sykora, and Eric Belanger scored in the third to tie up the game, and Andrew Brunette score in the overtime on the powerplay after James Wisniewski took a retalatory penalty on Kyle Brodziak to secure the overtime win for the Wild, and Todd Richards' first win as an NHL coach.

Fans saw in the third period how well Todd Richards system could work for the Wild, we'll see if the Wild can do what they did in the third for a full 60 minutes.

Notes:

• Pierre-Marc Bouchard was a late scratch due to ongoing headaches. He'll be out indefinitely until the organization figures out what's wrong with him.
• Loudest ovations during lineups to Brent Burns, Koivu, Niklas Backstrom and Cal Clutterbuck.
• A Wild player got hit in the first period and was just dumped into the bench...can't seem to find who it is though, anyone know?
• Joffrey Lupul took a puck to the face in the first period, but came back in the second to score the first goal for the Ducks.
• The Wild actually won in the faceoff department, winning 63 percent of the faceoffs, with Koivu winning 76 percent of his faceoffs.
• Can you honestly tell me that the home opener was a sellout when the suites and club levels were mainly empty, the lower level had a bunch of rows that were empty, and the end opposite of the one that I was sitting across was just bare?...Well, it is tickets distributed, not how many people actually show up...

UP NEXT: Thursday @ Los Angeles Kings, 9:30pm CT

Read more...

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

Read more...

Things to Watch in the Last 5 Games

How well will Marian Gaborik will play in order to improve his UFA status this summer? So far, in the 6 games since his return, Gaborik has had 5 goals and 3 assists.

Will Josh Harding get a start in order to create more buzz around his RFA status and to up his stock for a potential trade this summer?

Will the minor league call ups (Krys Kolanos, John Scott, and Peter Olvecky) who were on the Aeros' clear day roster be sent down before the end of the season to help the Aeros in their playoff run?

Will Brent Burns and Pierre-Marc Bouchard, who are both out with concussions, play another game this season?

Will Derek Boogaard score his first goal in over 2 seasons? He's had a couple of good scoring chances this season, but has been injured as of late.

Will the Wild make the playoffs?...Hey they still have a 16.6% chance to get into the playoffs (that's up 2.2% from yesterday)

You got to love April Fools Day jokes...well maybe not if you're Eric Belanger...

Read more...

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!)

Read more...

Oilers, 2 vs. Wild, 3 SO

Pretty crucial win for the Wild yesterday against Edmonton, but you can say that about every game until the end of the regular season as the Wild look to make the playoffs, I just wished that they didn't give Edmonton the 'loser point' yesterday...anyways...

Solid game by the Wild against the Oilers yesterday, not totally exciting, but at least there wasn't any major brain farts by the team. Niklas Backstrom had a solid game yesterday, even after being run over by the Oilers a couple of times, but where were the Wild while Backstrom was being run. I understand not wanting to take a retalitory penalty, but you got to protect the goalie, especially this goalie who has stolen games for the Wild, and especially the way that the Oilers were taking a run at Backs. Eric Belanger scored late in the first period to tie the game at 1, and Antti Miettinen (who actually didn't 'miss-the-net-again') got his first career shorthanded goal to give the Wild a 2-1 lead, but with a little over 6 minutes to play in the game Sam Gagner scores to tie up the game, and it headed into extra sessions. Backstrom stops all four attempts by the Oilers in the shootout, and Koivu scores the game winner to give the Wild the extra point. With the win, the Wild take over sole possession of second place in the NW division with 57 points, one point ahead of the Vancouver Canucks.

Notes:

• Great cele by Koivu with the shootout winner, just totally HILARIOUS! And he's sporting a pretty nice shiner too; wonder where he got that?
• With 7 hits against the Oilers, Clutterbuck becomes the first player to reach 200 hits this season.
• Schultz played in his 500th career NHL game; Nolan played in his 1,100th career NHL game.
  
• Wow, an actual win against a team that played the night before.
• Kurtis Foster played with the Houston Aeros in his first game since breaking his femur in a game against San Jose last March. Foster had 2 PIMs and didn't register a point in his return to game action, but it's obviously a huge step for him, and it won't be long until he'll be in the Wild lineup again. Aeros won 6-3 over the Chicago Wolves.
  

UP NEXT: Wednesday vs. Colorado Avalanche, 7:00pm CT

Read more...

Wild 4-0 win over Blues

After Monday night's debacle of a game against Colorado, the Wild rebound nicely in a great solid effort against the Blues. The Wild scored 4 goals, held the opposition to none, and two of those four goals were power play goals, so it was obviously a better game than Monday's. Eric Belanger provided the game winner with his 100th career NHL goal, his 7th of the season, and Andrew Brunette scored on the powerplay for his 200th career NHL goal, his 9th on the season tying him for the team lead with Mikko Koivu. Also scoring on the powerplay was Zidlicky for his 4th of the season, all of which have come on the powerplay, and Antti Miettinen got his first goal in 16 games when he was tripped going in on a breakaway with the empty net. The Wild had a full 60 minute effort, and I applaud them for that, but let's get back to reality...this is the St. Louis Blues that the Wild beat not the Detroit Red Wings or San Jose Sharks, so I'm not going to be too overly thrilled about this game. I guess I'm a glass half empty kind of gal today.

Up Next: Friday vs. Vancouver Canucks, 7:00pm CT

Read more...

Postgame Thoughts vs. Bruins

Just got home from the Wild's home opener, and boy am I glad hockey is BACK! I loved seeing that Northwest Division Champions banner in the rafter, and I just hung up the replica banner that were handed out after the game, along with my calendar in my room. Full house tonight at the Xcel and a very loud ovation to Kurtis Foster during the announcement of the players that weren't playing.

The team had an extremely slow start tonight against the Boston Bruins, more because they had to kill a four-minute high sticking penalty early on in the game by Brent Burns, but they managed to go into the second period tied after Eric Belanger scores on a powerplay late in the first. The Wild dominated the Bruins in the second period with three goals from Bergeron, Miettinen, and Belanger, his second of the night. The third period was a different story. It took the Wild more than 10 minutes before they got their first shot on goal in the third, with most of the play being in the Wild's defensive zone. But they held on long enough for a 4-3 win over the Boston Bruins, and all that matters right now is getting the W.

3 Stars of the Night:
1. Eric Belanger
2. Mikko Koivu
3. Brent Burns

Oh...and Pavol Demitra just scored the game winner in overtime against the Calgary Flames who blew a 3-1 lead, so much for redemption against the Canucks for the Flames...

Read more...