Wild overcome slow start with 3-2 regulation win in Chicago

A Blackhawks writer Mark Lazarus recently scoffed that the Blackhawks don’t have any tough games coming up.  Really?  He may want to read the instructions on his sideview mirror “objects in the mirror may be closer than they appear” as the Wild have been steadily catching up to Chicago.  Oh wait…he can’t see them in the mirror, look to your left?  Here we are and we’re looking to pass you by.  Or at least that’s the hope (knock on wood).

The first half of the season was as good as its ever been for the Wild, it hasn’t always followed the same script but the team’s depth and resiliency appear to be in full effect right now.  Can Minnesota start the 2nd half with a victory over Chicago and put them in the rear-view mirror completely?

1st Period Thoughts: Man, this game hasn’t even started yet and I’m already ticked off. During the pre-game nonsense, we were subjected to our lessons about Shattuck-St. Mary’s in Fairbault, MN. Aren’t you glad you have NBC Sports Network to remind you, ad nauseum, that players like Zach Parise attended said educational institution? And if you missed it during the pre-game, rest assured, Pierre McGuire will tell you at least five times during the game. And because it’s Sunday, it’s “Stars Sunday” and tonight’s “battle” is between Parise and Patrick Kane so be prepared to see the annoying ice tracker on your screen. At least Minnesota’s fourth line has come out with some energy tonight. They’re going to need to play well, especially since it’s a back-to-back situation. Remember the annoying ice tracker thing? Well, ol’ Kane will take a beautiful pass from Artem Anisimov for the opening goal under five minutes into the game, a goal on their second shot of the night. The problem, and it’s one that this team has struggled with this season, is giving up the odd-man rush. It’s not something in general you want to do, but when your opponent is a team like Chicago Blackhawks, you might as well play Russian Roulette. You might find better luck with Russian Roulette. Of course, Deven Dubnyk isn’t looking stellar tonight, the night where you do need him to do just that. He’s let up some rough rebounds and the puck doesn’t seem to want to settle in front of him when he wants to freeze play. When you’re the one player who had last night off and you seem to look the most tired, there’s a problem. Right now, I feel like this period is a repeat of last night’s second period and chunks of the third. There are moments near the end of the period where the Wild look like they’re settling in to this game, but of course as I think such a thought, there boneheaded passes and mishandling the puck. I think at this point, if the Wild head to the locker room only down 1-0, it will be a minor victory of sorts. If there’s any hope for this game, it came near the end of the period by the second line, getting some great pressure on Corey Crawford. One can only hope that Bruce Boudreau gives him team a piece of his mind during the intermission. If we see more of what we’ve seen so far, tonight will be a long, long night.

2nd Period Thoughts: Well the showing by the Wild in first minute of this period much, much better than the start to the opening period. I’m glad to see that the second line was on the ice to start, as they had that nice push near the end of the first. Of course the obvious is that they still haven’t gotten a point on the board, but so far I’m preferring this period more so far, even though it’s still early. The first scoring chance that really looked like a serious threat would come from a breakaway by Mikael Granlund. If Granlund has been able to lift the puck, it would have been behind Crawford. And I’m happy to see a Minnesota see a skater pick up the rebound, in Jason Zucker trying also to tuck it past Crawford. Both chances of course would end up being unsuccessful. Just when you think the Wild are starting to find a bit of a groove, a faceoff would come in the Wild zone, and in a Blackhawks faceoff win, Kane would shoot it past Dubnyk to make it 2-o Chicago, or more like 2-0 Kane. Minnesota would get the first power play of the game with Anisimov getting called for tripping Charlie Coyle. Minnesota exhibited puck control and net-front presence in this power play. Nino Niederreiter would part himself in front of Crawford and get the rebound off of Jonas Brodin’s shot on goal. This is the time where the Wild really need to push, to build on the energy created by Niederreiter’s goal. If the guy who was the target of every bit of Dallas’s physical game can find a way to score, everyone else should have it in them to find some offense. And just when you see the second line work their butts off in a long shift after the Niederreiter game, the fourth line picks up where the second line left off. In an almost repeat of last night’s game, Jordan Schroeder would skate the puck into the zone and make a beautiful pass to linemate Chris Stewart. Stewart’s ninth goal of the season helps even out the playing field in this game, and gets Minnesota back in the mix. I would argue that the past two or three games, we’re finally seeing an effective fourth line. As fans, we get used to seeing limited icetime out of the fourth line, however, when teams are firing on all cylinders, you expect to see more out of the line. If there’s one thing I wish would happen, it would be to split up Matt Dumba and Marco Scandella. Right now, they’re both struggling in their roles, and having them on the same defensive line, can be scary. Although, I don’t know how I would break them up, because when you look deeper, they’ve been even worse when they’re not paired together. Makes you wonder what coach Scott Stevens says to them in practice and if they’re even listening. I don’t know guys, but if you have a former NHL defenseman like Scott Stevens as an assistant coach and you’re a young defenseman, you need to shut up and listen. Mikko Koivu would draw the Wild first penalty of the night for hooking. It should come as no shock to anyone that Kane would be on the ice to start this Blackhawks power play. And since it’s near the end of the period, Kane would stay on the ice for the entirety of the power play. Between the Wild’s penalty killers and some great stops by Dubnyk, the Wild would go to the locker room with a tied game and a vast majority of the penalty killed off.

3rd Period Thoughts: Have to love another great start to the period by Koivu’s line. No one can doubt that this line has finally found a rhythm that works. It would be nice however if lines one and three would find the same kind of rhythm that lines two and four have. Yes, I realize that Niederreiter scored tonight, however he’s had a quiet season in many ways. Okay everyone, run outside and check to see if pigs are flying. If you’re like me, you’re doing a double take, shaking your head wondering if you really saw Jason Pominville score a goal. Trust me, your eyes are not deceiving you. He got a beautiful open net after a hard shot by Scandella off of the end boards. What’s even more surprising, is that Pominville has had open nets like that before and has managed to miss on them. Well not tonight. And with that goal by Pominville, we’re finally seeing the Wild team that we’ve come to know lately. A team that’s defensively responsible, with good goaltending, and skaters that take the opportunities that come to them. It’s one of the things that I never understand with this team. They have the ability to push all night long, but you’ll get games like this where they’d rather dig a hole for themselves and then have to claw their way out. I realize that they played last night and they’re tired. I realize the Blackhawks got crushed on Friday night and wanted to play angry. However the poor start to this one should not have happened. Now as this game heads into the final three minutes of regulation, we should expect to see Chicago push hard. Considering how well the Wild are playing right now, Chicago is probably going to wait a little longer than normal to pull Crawford, because the Wild are in a frame of mind where scoring an empty net goal would not be out of the question. Chicago would get Crawford off the ice but in the excitement to make an offensive push, they’d enter the offensive zone offsides. Because of that mistake, Crawford would have to return to the ice briefly for the faceoff. Lately, Ryan Suter has been playing solid games lately, but would take a penalty with 22 seconds remaining, however Chicago would ice the puck at the worst possible time. The opening faceoff after the penalty would not happen in the Wild’s zone, but in the neutral zone. That alone would slice off valuable seconds from their power play. Then the team with the lead can ice the puck without penalty. Those things combined kept Chicago off the board and Minnesota would win and surpass Chicago in the standings in position and points. For a game that did not start out well, I’m going to happily accept the result.

Wild Notes:

~ The Wild roster was as follows: Zach Parise, Eric Staal, Charlie Coyle, Jason Zucker, Mikko Koivu, Mikael Granlund, Nino Niederreiter, Erik Haula, Jason Pominville, Chris Stewart, Tyler Graovac, Jordan Schroeder, Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon, Jonas Brodin, Christian Folin, Marco Scandella and Mathew Dumba.  Darcy Kuemper backed up Devan Dubnyk.  Nate Prosser and Kurtis Gabriel were the healthy scratches.

~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star, Patrick Kane; 2nd Star, Devan Dubnyk; 3rd Star; Nino Niederreiter.

~ Attendance was 22,051 at United Center.

Iowa Wild Report:

Iowa 2, San Antonio 1 OT

Iowa would have another fast start and again thanks to the speed of Christoph Bertschy who found the twine behind Spencer Martin.  Iowa’s lead would stand for until just under the 3 minute mark of the 2nd when the Rampage would score on the power play as former Boston College star Joe Whitney lit the lamp.  Martin and Alex Stalock stood tall throughout the 3rd period and the game would go to overtime.  In overtime the Wild were creating all kinds of quality chances, striking two posts and a bunch of other quality opportunities.  The game seemed destined to go to a shootout but it was Bertschy who got a step on the San Antonio defense thanks to a nice pass by Grayson Downing and he’d rip a shot by Martin to give the Wild a 2-1 win and its first 4-game winning streak in franchise history.  Stalock had 30 saves in the victory which also gave the Wild a .500 record.

Wild Prospect Report:

LW – Brandon Duhaime (Providence, H-East) ~ the Florida-born winger had an assist and PIM’s in Providence’s 4-1 win over Vermont on Saturday.  Duhaime has 2 goals, 8 points, 39 PIM’s and is a -3 in 22 games.

C – Avery Peterson (Minnesota-Duluth, NCHC) ~ the former Mr. Hockey winner has been a nice offensive boost for the Bulldogs as he tallied a goal and an assist in their 4-3 overtime win over in-state arch rival St. Cloud State.  Peterson has 2 goals, 3 points, 15 PIM’s and is a +3 in 5 games.

D – Nolan DeJong (Michigan, Big 10) ~ the junior defenseman and the Wolverines had a rough weekend as he chipped in an assist in Michigan’s 4-2 loss to Minnesota.  DeJong has 2 goals, 6 points, 27 PIM’s and is a -2 in 19 games.

LW – Kirill Kaprizov (Salavat Yulaev Ufa, KHL) ~ the talented Russian continues what is the second best season for a 19-year old player (best is Washington Capitals’ Evgeni Kuznetsov) as he added an assist in Salavat Yulaev’s 6-1 loss to Avangard Omsk.  Kaprizov has 17 goals, 35 points, 64 PIM’s and is a +9 in 39 games.

C – Dmitry Sokolov (Sudbury, OHL) ~ the Russian is pretty tough to contain and even though he had 2 shots on goal, 1 of them found the back of the net and then he added another in the shootout in Sudbury’s 4-3 OT win over Mississauga on Sunday afternoon.  Sokolov has 33 goals, 46 points, 4 PIM’s and is a -16 in 39 games.

D – Gustav Bouramman (Sault Ste. Marie, OHL) ~ the Stockholm, Sweden-native set up teammate Zach Senshyn‘s (Boston Bruins prospect) game-tying goal as the Greyhounds prevailed 4-3 in overtime over London.  Bouramman has a goal, 22 points, 26 PIM’s and is a +7 in 41 games.