Wild claim 1st place in Central Division with 5-4 win in Dallas

Morning show radio is usually something to get the mind going as you make your commute to work.  When I used to live in the Twin Cities often that was the KQRS Morning Show, but since moving to the wilds of Wisconsin I listen to NHL Home Ice radio on XM.  Even though they talk about Canadian teams a bit more than I feel is deserved I get it, the station is located in Toronto and probably most of their regular listeners are from Canada.  Yet it does give me a pulse on how Canada perceives American teams.  Most teams at least, except the handful of clubs they never seem to talk about; Arizona, Carolina and Minnesota.

The Minnesota Wild cannot seem to do much of anything that will garner more than a few token comments or a few well-beaten story lines whether it had any relevance to the team’s most recent game or not.  But hey, a 2-game winning streak for Nashville?  Damn, that’s a team on the rise so let’s talk about them for 15 minutes!  Can the Wild earn some respect against Dallas or will the Stars provide a reason to ignore them?

1st Period Thoughts: For some reason, I was sure we had already past the halfway mark of the season, but no, that game is tonight. But instead, let’s talk about the fact that it didn’t take long for the scoring to open up tonight. In a beautiful shift by Jason Zucker, he would skate into the zone with the puck and get a great shot on goal. That shot generated a big rebound for Mikael Granlund who it looks more like Dallas’ own Johnny Oduya scooped it in behind Antti Niemi. The scoring would continue just three minutes into the opening period with a beautiful goal by none other than Eric Staal. This is the kind of play by Minnesota you hope continues, because if they can keep scoring, it will help take some of the pressure off of Darcy Kuemper. Heck, Kuemper is going to be feeling pretty relaxed as Matt Dumba would make it 3-0 in under five minutes of play. Dumba’s goal would chase Niemi from the goal and put Kari Lehtonen in the crease. Yes, amazingly those three goals came on two shots. Isn’t that some interesting math. Kind of reminds me of the concept of imaginary numbers that they teach you in algebra. Now with the new goaltender, they cannot take their foot off the gas. When you have that three goal lead early in the game, it’s easy to get sloppy and lazy. What I’ve liked after the goaltender change, is that the Wild continue to put pressure on the Dallas goaltender. Although color me confused for a moment. Somehow the first goal is being credited to Mikko Koivu. Um, okay. I have to admit, I got a bit of a chuckle during the second half of the period. We constantly rag on Jason Pominville for his shots never ever getting on goal. They’re always wide or they hit a post. So he actually gets a good shot on goal, and Lehtonen actually managed to stop the shot. Have to love that that stop also generated a Bronx cheer by the fans in Dallas. Now if they game had been in Saint Paul, the Bronx cheer probably would have been directed at Pominville for the futileness of his shot attempts. Again, scoring chances would come from all lines and all positions. While Ryan Suter doesn’t have the best shot on the team, but every once in a while he gets a nice shot. He did on Thursday night and he did again here in the first period. While it didn’t get past Lehtonen, it certainly had a bit of fire on it. The scoring would continue by the Wild. It was all set up by the speed of Jordan Schroeder. His linemate of Chris Stewart makes for a tough decision by Lehtonen. He had to decide who to watch for, the shot by the speedy Schroeder or the pass to Stewart. In this case, Schroeder made the kick pass to Stewart who buried it in the net behind Lehtonen. I definitely feel a want to do a victory dance, however it’s still way to early to have those kinds of thoughts. One thing I’ve noticed on a consistent basis, is that the Wild’s passes are intentional and for the most part get to their intended recipient. When they don’t get where they’re supposed to, there’s someone there to pick it back up and make a push to either keep it in the zone or into the zone. It’s the kind of team game we need to see more of every night. The first power play would go to the Stars late in the period after Jonas Brodin was called for hooking. Now let me say this, I’ve seem some of the same kind of moves by the Stars, but they were not called. Don’t get me wrong, Brodin was definitely using his stick a little too much, but at least call it on both teams. Just because the Wild are up 4-0 doesn’t excuse not calling hooking or interference on the Stars. The Wild would kill the penalty, and to make up for his infraction, Brodin would save Kuemper. The Stars would finally get on the board at the end of the period with a goal by Antoine Roussel. I wish we would have seen a better angle, because as the play was happening, it certainly looked like he was way offside, so I was a bit surprised that Bruce Boudreau didn’t ask for a review. While it would have been great to head to the locker room with a 4-0 lead, I’m still happy with the 4-1 lead.

2nd Period Thoughts: I still have concerns on whether this team can and will play three periods of hockey on a regular basis. I say this because the first period was so explosive for Minnesota, that it would be just like them to take the second period off and let the Stars back into this game. In these early minutes of the period, the passing doesn’t feel as crisp or intentional. It feels a bit more rushed and helter-skelter. And just like I feared, the Stars would stage their comeback attempt early. I for one was not shocked that we’d see a Dallas goal early in the period. This time, goal number two goes to Jiri Hudler. At first, I thought it was going to John Klingberg who has been a Wild-killer in recent seasons. However, Klingberg was on the ice and helped make things happen. If the Wild don’t get their heads back in the game, that decreasing lead will become non-existent. Unlike the first period where we spent most of time in the offensive zone, we’ve been spending more time in our own zone. Of course several icings aren’t helping matters. We’re seeing the lazy, sloppy hockey that this team simply cannot afford. That sloppy play isn’t just limited to icings and passing this period, it’s also showing up in faceoffs as well. This period has been ugly and we’re not even half way through. The ill-timed icing, became a bad faceoff, became a bad puck handling by Kuemper which became a goal by Tyler Seguin that shouldn’t have happened. A win tonight would mean the Wild would take over the top spot in the Central Division and Western Conference. But right now, this period looks like the previous two seasons where the Wild back their way into the playoffs. The Wild are often their own worst enemy. They needed to come out and play like they did in the first period, but that basic concept seems to escape them. They’re also not supporting each other like they did in the first. Remember when I said even if they messed up slightly with a pass that a teammate would be right there to pounce on that puck? Well it’s not happening now and then they’re allowing Dallas at that loose puck. Wow, that took long enough for the Stars to finally get called for a penalty. It was beyond obvious that Zach Parise had the puck and was trying to skate with it and Jamie Benn was trying to do everything to prevent it. For the longest time, I felt like the officials weren’t going to call it as they’ve let the Stars hook, hold, and interfere for quite a bit of the game. Just because Minnesota’s power play has found success in recent games is not a reason to not call the penalty. However this power play hasn’t been as good as the one’s we’ve seen recently. It’s a combination of shaky passing and shaky receiving, which is not a good recipe for success. At the very least, the skaters once they got things settled down, they’ve tried shots from every spot by every player. Variety is what gets past a goaltender. Kind of nice to see the team not trying to continually set up Koivu for an entire game. The Wild will get to see if they can build on the energy they generated on the end of that unsuccessful power play as Stewart was hooked by Klingberg. This power play has felt a bit too deliberate by the Wild skaters. When the line of Koivu, Granlund, and Nino Niederreiter certainly made for a more interesting and effective power play. Their hard work while didn’t net a goal, did force the Stars to ice the puck after killing the penalty. And just when you start to think that the ice was tilting back in Minnesota’s favor, Zucker would take a high-sticking call. There was a scary scrum in front of Kuemper and thanks to a block by Jared Spurgeon the Wild were able to clear the zone. There would come a great short-handed chance near the end of the period by Staal and Parise, however Parise would send it wide of Lehtonen. Minnesota would kill the penalty and would thankfully head into the second intermission still with the lead, albeit by only one goal instead of three.

3rd Period Thoughts: As the old saying goes, the goal post is often a goaltender’s best friend. After a save by Kuemper, he would let up a juicy rebound that Radek Faksa would send off the pipe, on a shot I was sure was going to get past Kuemper. These are probably the kinds of breaks that Minnesota is going to need this period. One thing that hasn’t happened since the fist period has been the Wild skating with the puck into the zone, which of course would explain why they’ve had a hard time getting anything set up in the offensive zone. Now, would be the time to do that with the power play since Zucker after he was tripped up by Patrick Eaves. They need to use their speed and combine it with the ability and determination. The Stars would add to their penalties after Suter was tripped up by Devin Shore. Minnesota would fail to do anything with the 2-man advantage and would continue to struggle with the regular power play. Dallas would kill it off and in its waning moments, would also deliver a huge hit on Niederreiter who appears to be their target tonight. Not sure what he’s done to the Stars tonight, but pretty much any chance they get to lay out Niederreiter, they take it. He’s probably going to need a body-sized ice pack on the flight to Chicago tonight. While the Wild try to push for another goal, we see time and time examples of interference by Dallas. But then considering how unimpressive Minnesota’s power play has been tonight, it’s going to pretty much require drawn blood for the Wild to get another power play tonight. That’s one of those things that drives me crazy about officiating. Why is it called in one situation and not in another? Why can the score determine whether or not a penalty is called? Why does does it matter if it’s regular season or playoffs? Just when you want to see the Wild to make a serious push, Staal would take a call for tripping. This Stars power play was an example of the importance of clearing the zone. I can’t blame Kuemper too much because the shot by Klingberg bounced off several players on the way into the net. However had the Wild cleared the puck earlier, it could have made for a different power play. So a game that had us Wild fans feeling pretty good, now has a game tied up with over eight minutes to go in regulation. And then when you’re feeling bad, the line of Granlund, Zucker, and Koivu finds a way to steal the puck back, Granlund’s shot on goal would go off of Zucker who was then pushed into the goal. The officials were looking to see if the puck had crossed the line prior to the net being pushed off of its moorings. Here is where you need Minnesota to take that momentum and power them through to the end. Yet as I look at the clock, with just under six minutes remaining in regulation, there is way too much time remaining for any of us to feel comfortable. As we head into the final three minutes, I’ve noticed another issue. The Wild’s clearing issues often stem from the fact that they don’t skate with the puck. Instead they try for the cute, chippy kind of clear, which rarely every crosses the blue line unless another Wild player gets their stick on the puck. And even if a Wild player touches it again, it still might fail to cross the blue line. Seriously, you have two feet as well as a hockey stick. You can use those feet to actually skate and work to get that puck out of the zone. Heck, you might even create some offense of your own. I know they’re getting tired and they may be try to save some energy for tomorrow night, but this game is too close to be trying to save energy. The Stars were trying really hard to get Lehtonen off the ice for the extra skater. Minnesota would do a really good job of keep the puck in the Dallas zone which would delay Lehtonen’s exit. The last flurry in front of Kuemper looked like a perfectly executed Wild penalty kill. Sticks and bodies were in the right place at the right time. Nobody got themselves in a bad position and the Stars had a few times where they couldn’t handle a bouncing puck. While this game got way too close considering the first period, I have to be somewhat glad that they found a way to dig down deep and keep the game under their control in the last half of the period. Now as the Wild head to Chicago, they now sit at the top of the Central Division and the Western Conference. It’s a good feeling, but tomorrow is going to come soon and tomorrow’s opponent is going to do everything it can to change that fact.

Wild Notes:

~ The Wild roster was as follows: Charlie Coyle, Chris Stewart, Mikko Koivu, Jordan Schroeder, Zach Parise, Eric Staal, Jason Zucker, Nino Niederreiter, Jason Pominville, Tyler Graovac, Erik Haula, Mikael Granlund, Christian Folin, Marco Scandella, Ryan Suter, Matt Dumba, Jonas Brodin, and Jared Spurgeon. Darcy Kuemper would get the night’s start and Devan Dubnyk would get the night off as the backup.

~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star, Jason Zucker; 2nd Star, John Klingberg; 3rd Star, Kari Lehtonen.

~ Attendance was 18,532 at American Airlines Arena.

Iowa Wild Report:

Iowa 4, San Antonio 1

Iowa traveled to San Antonio Friday and at the end of a pretty even 1st period the Wild would score late as Christoph Bertschy would turn on the jets for a breakaway and then chipped a shot over the surprised Rampage goalie to give his club a 1-0 lead going into the 1st intermission.  Iowa would then add to its lead early in the 2nd period when Sam Anas made a nice little move to work his way into the slot before ripping a shot by Jeremy Smith.  Iowa would add to its lead a few minutes later as Pat Cannone drew defenders to him before finding Jeff Hoggan wide open with a back-door pass.  The Rampage would cut the Wild lead back to two on a goal by J.T. Compher but that’s as close as San Antonio would get.  Iowa would add a power play goal on a beauty of a tic tac toe play where Zack Mitchell buried a great pass by Mario Lucia.  Alex Stalock had 30 saves in the victory.  Mario Lucia ended up with 2 assists.

Wild Prospect Report:

D – Gustav Bouramman (Sault Ste. Marie, OHL) ~ the diminutive defenseman contributed two assists, but it wasn’t nearly enough as the Greyhounds were blitzed 6-2 by the Mississauga Steelheads on Friday.  The Stockholm, Sweden-native has a goal, 21 points, 26 PIM’s and is a +8 in 40 games.

RW – Jordan Greenway (Boston U., H-East) ~ the big power forward chipped in an assist on the game winning goal as Boston U. beat arch rival Boston College 2-1 on Friday.  Greenway has 6 goals, 18 points, 42 PIM’s and is a +6 in 18 games.

D – Louie Belpedio (Miami, NCHC) ~ the stocky defenseman helped spark a comeback with a goal and two assists in Miami’s 6-3 come-from-behind win over North Dakota.  Belpedio has 4 goals, 12 points, 29 PIM’s and is a -2 in 15 games.