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Wild Rally Back from 3-0 to Win 4-3 in OT
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
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:
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
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