It never ceases to amaze me, but to see the way high school athletes are when given the chance to stop somewhere and eat before you return home. Almost before the bus stops, kids are trying to stand up and readying themselves for a harried race out the door. No matter what the outcome was in the athletic event they had finished, they will usually get pumped for that opportunity and standing in front of them is like being the Wal-Mart employee standing at the doors just before they’re open early on Black Friday. As players stampede before the door, they elbow and shove their way to the front. Its going to be much the same way in the race for the playoffs Western Conference. Every team is looking to push and shove its way into the top 8 clubs as it is done every year. The most vicious pushing and shoving usually happens towards those bottom few spots and the Minnesota Wild find themselves in that group as do tonight’s opponent the Dallas Stars.
This game is another one with 4 point potential. The Wild can gain some separation from the Stars with a victory in Dallas. The Stars have been playing better as of late, but one could argue the Wild have been performing better as well. The game should have the intensity of a playoff game and if you’re a fan of the game you have to like the sound of that. It will likely come down to who wants it more; will the Wild step with a big road victory?
1st Period Thoughts: The action was fast and furious as both clubs were looking to create offense off the rush, but the excellent team speed meant they were able to backcheck well enough to prevent any shot being directed on goal. Zach Parise thought he had a 2-on-1 he could work with but was foiled by a diving Alex Goligoski that made it nearly impossible for him to connect on a saucer pass to a waiting Jason Pominville. The Stars would counter with its top line as Jason Spezza flung a wrist shot off the rush that was dismissed by Darcy Kuemper. Dallas would earn the first power play of the game as Erik Haula tapped the hands of Jamie Benn which was called a ‘slash.’ The penalty would prove costly as the Stars would light the lamp first as Vernon Fiddler lifted a shot over the shoulder of Kuemper off the rush to make it 1-0 Dallas. Soon after the Stars goal, Goligoski would hit Parise in the back that would send him careening into the boards for an easy cross-checking call giving Minnesota its first chance at the man advantage. Tempers would flare as Goligoski thought Parise went down pretty easy and Jason Pominville skated over to let he was unhappy with the hit. On the power play the Wild would start with its veteran group. The Wild were able to create a few nice chances as Mikko Koivu pulled the trigger on a heavy slap shot that was stopped by Kari Lehtonen but unfortunately Thomas Vanek wasn’t in position to pounce on the rebound. The Stars, having killed off the power play would counter with Spezza who created a little space for himself as he got off a wrist shot that was steered aside by an alert Kuemper. The Wild would find themselves back on the penalty kill as Jonas Brodin would take a lazy hooking penalty as he stopped moving his feet as John Klingberg tried to carry the puck down low. On the power play the Stars moved the puck around pretty well, but Minnesota did a decent job at contesting shots to get a big kill. A few minutes later, a scrum near the Wild goal drew a penalty as Fiddler took a swing at Haula giving Fiddler a roughing penalty. On the Wild power play, Minnesota struggled to get set up in the Dallas end. Ryan Suter would hammer a slap shot that was painfully blocked by Jamie Benn that sent him reeling and as Suter gathered up the loose puck the Wild were unable to take advantage of the additional time and space gained from it thanks to some errant passes. The Wild again came up empty on the power play. Minnesota would again find itself in penalty trouble as Pominville would sit with a holding call. The Wild would escape without further damage but still had a 1:04 left to kill off in the 2nd. Minnesota was being way too choosy in its shot selection, being outshot 12-5.
2nd Period Thoughts: Minnesota’s penalty killers were aggressive in applying pressure to the Stars power play and they’d earn an important early kill. The Wild still struggled to get much of anything going offensively, and the Stars would continue to carry the play. Kuemper found himself busy as he made a nice leg pad save on Tyler Seguin and moments after that he’d deny Fiddler on another chance. Minnesota’s defense was spending lots of time standing and watching in its own zone as the Wild were compelled to take a timeout to give their club a rest after chasing around its own zone as the Stars were buzzing. The Stars seemed to be a step faster than the Wild at every race for loose pucks and they’d extend their lead as Colten Scevior would wire a slap shot by Kuemper to make it 2-0 Dallas. There was no deflection and it certainly was a goal Kuemper has to stop. On the next faceoff, Stu Bickel and Erik Cole would be yapping and jousting a bit but the officials stepped in and sent both players to the penalty box. With the ice more open 4-on-4, the Stars continued to dominate as Spezza would bear down towards Kuemper but his shot would be blocked by Jared Spurgeon to keep the Wild within two. Minnesota’s lack of hustle continued to make them vulnerable as the Stars continued to outskate and outwork the Wild as Brett Ritchie fed a behind the back pass out front to Fiddler who lit the lamp a 2nd time to make it 3-0. The Wild were clearly frustrated and looking to fight after this goal as Mike Yeo sent out Matt Cooke, Ryan Carter, Stu Bickel, Nate Prosser and Christian Folin. The fight would come about 30 seconds later as Prosser dropped the gloves against Scevior. Prosser would step in and start throwing a few right handed punches before he wrestled the Stars winger to the ice. Did it spark the Wild? Not at all as the team again stood and watched as the Stars would strike again as Klingberg hammered a shot on goal that Kuemper stopped but Seguin was there to finish. 4-0 Dallas. Yeo had seen enough and took out Kuemper even though he was not to blame for that last goal and swapped him out with Niklas Backstrom. The Wild would earn a power play Trevor Daley was called for high sticking but this too would only end up boosting the Stars as Niklas Backstrom would try to play a puck and make a poor pass along the boards that was intercepted which turned into an easy goal for Erik Cole. The Wild would try to get something back on the remaining power play as they attempted a few quick bang-bang plays near the crease that failed to connect. On the next shift, a huge melee would ensue between Fiddler and Carter and then an even more spirited fight between Bickel and Jason Demers with Bickel really throwing them early. Perhaps sensing his teammate was about to be crushed, Daley would try to step in to help out and Demers was able to recover as those two would collapse to the ice behind the Stars’ goal. As the sequence began, Goligoski slashed Cooke’s stick in half. When the smoke cleared, Bickel would be given an instigator and a game misconduct and Carter was given an additional roughing penalty to give Dallas a 2-minute 5-on-3 power play, Daley who joined in as a 3rd man in got nothing at all. The Stars were not terribly creative on the 5-on-3 as they set up Daley for a series of blasts from the point. Minnesota stayed in a tight triangle, blocking shots and the Wild were able to get the big kill. Backstrom at one point was nearly beaten as the puck trickled through but he’d swat the puck out of danger just before it was able to cross the goal line. As the penalty expired, the Wild were able to draw a Stars penalty as Thomas Vanek was held up by Klingberg as he nearly was sprung for a breakaway. Minnesota would finally find the back of the net on the power play as Koivu made a nice pass from beneath the goal line to Vanek who put one upstairs to cut the Dallas lead to four, 5-1. The goal seemed to spark the Wild a bit as Minnesota had another great chance as Zucker pushed a puck up to Vanek who then passed it back to Zucker who dove and then tapped a shot on goal before sliding into the goal himself. A great effort by the speedy Zucker. Unfortunately the Wild’s defensive breakdowns continued as the Stars would counter with some great speed as Ryan Garbutt let go a backhand that created a ridiculous rebound on Backstrom that was buried by Antoine Roussel to make it 6-1 Dallas. Minnesota would try to push back as Marco Scandella sent a wrist shot on goal that was stopped by Lehtonen and then Niederreiter’s rebound bid was steered aside by the Stars’ goalie. The period would come to an end, but nothing could really quell the pain of 5 goals scored by Dallas. It could make for an interesting 3rd period, will anyone on the Wild show up?
3rd Period Thoughts: The Wild would try to make the score a bit more respectable to start the 3rd as they’d try to go on the attack early. The Stars were content to just muck and grind and play keep way from the Wild. Minnesota did not seem to have a whole lot of fight in them, lacking the jump to win the little races to the puck. With both clubs sort of going through the motions of a one-sided game there wasn’t a whole lot of major events. Ales Hemsky would dangle around a Wild defender and he’d wrist a shot that was stopped by Backstrom but the puck nearly trickled in before he was able to pounce on it for a whistle. The Stars started to look for an exclamation point to their victory and Benn and Seguin started to patrol around the Wild end looking to light the lamp one more time. Minnesota looked completely unmotivated, just pushing the puck up the ice and only really trying on a few isolated sequences. Dallas would score one more time as Brett Ritchie shoveled home a shot from in close to make it 7-1. The game would mercifully come to an end before Dallas was able to put it to double-digits.
Darcy Kuemper isn’t completely to blame for this one getting out of hand, but he again had a soft goal that seemed to serve as at catalyst for the rout. The Scevior blast was of the type that Kuemper simply cannot afford to give up. Kuemper gave up 4 goals on 21 shots. Niklas Backstrom provided the antithesis of relief when he gave up a bad stickhandling gaffe that doomed any chance the Wild had of regrouping in this game. Backstrom gave up 3 goals on 14 shots. Defensively the Wild did a lot of standing around and watching, especially in the 2nd period which allowed Dallas to light the lamp 5 times. I noticed several Wild defenseman pacing themselves which played right into the speedy Stars’ hands.
Offensively the Wild didn’t create nearly enough pressure to even come close to challenging the Stars this evening. The Wild power play had some good moments, but again the team was still too choosy as they tried to set up the perfect shooting opportunity. I thought the Wild got an ok effort from Thomas Vanek who seemed the most engaged from start to finish of any player Minnesota had tonight as he notched the Wild’s lone tally. Nino Niederreiter, Charlie Coyle, Zach Parise and Jason Pominville seemed to be floating around the ice most of the game hoping someone else would step up to take this game over.
Minnesota should be thoroughly embarrassed and ashamed after this debacle of an effort tonight in Dallas. In a game they needed to keep the Stars in their rear view mirror turned into a complete disaster with an absolutely pathetic 2nd period. While some might point out the team’s want to scrap after a few of the Stars’ goals, there wasn’t nearly enough ‘fire’ from the team as a whole tonight, to win those little battles and races for the puck as the Stars dominated play from start to finish. Ryan Carter told Minneapolis Star Tribune‘s Wild beat writer Michael Russo, “they outskated us, they outcompeted us, they outdesired us, and it hurts.” It hurt for fans like us to have to watch it. The Wild better be a lot better on Tuesday when they play the San Jose Sharks. The only good news is it really can’t get much worse than the effort we saw tonight.
Wild Notes:
~ Wild roster tonight was as follows: Mikko Koivu, Jason Pominville, Zach Parise, Thomas Vanek, Charlie Coyle, Nino Niederreiter, Kyle Brodziak, Jason Zucker, Erik Haula, Ryan Carter, Matt Cooke, Bryan Bickel, Ryan Suter, Jonas Brodin, Jared Spurgeon, Marco Scandella, Nate Prosser and Christian Folin. Niklas Backstrom shared duties between the pipes with Darcy Kuemper. Tyler Graovac, Brett Sutter and Justin Fontaine were the healthy scratches.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star Vernon Fiddler, 2nd Star Erik Cole, 3rd Star Tyler Seguin
~ Attendance was 18,532 at American Airlines Arena.
Iowa Wild Report:
Recent Score: Iowa 0, Rochester 3
Iowa’s first game of 2015 did not start out well, as the Americans struck first, less than 5 minutes in as Daniel Catenacci found Brodie Reid with a pass and he raced in and fired a shot by Johan Gustafsson. Iowa was unable to create much offensive pressure in the 1st period because they would get into penalty trouble. Rochester would strike again as Jerry D’Amigo would score late in the period to give the Amerks a 2-0 lead going into the 1st intermission. Iowa did not have much push back until the 3rd period. In the 3rd the Wild found themselves repeatedly stymied by the excellent goaltending of Andrey Makarov. Tim Schaller would add an empty netter to seal a 3-0 victory for Rochester. Gustafsson had 21 saves in the loss. Jordan Schroeder and Marc Hagel led the Wild in shots on goal with 4 apiece.
High School Hockey Report:
Holiday time was full of high profile tournaments and the rankings saw more than their fair share of shifting. You had some huge match ups which featured the state’s best facing off against one another. Fans packed arenas all over the state to watch these games and next to the State Tournament itself it is about as good as high school hockey gets. Here are the latest rankings as of January 2nd, 2015 according to Let’s Play Hockey.
Class AA (Girls)
1. Eden Prairie
2. Maple Grove
3. Roseau
4. Hill-Murray
5. Minnetonka
6. Edina
7. Wayzata
8. Dodge County
9. Lakeville South
10. Lakeville North
Class A (Girls)
1. Blake
2. Breck
3. Thief River Falls
4. Warroad
5. East Grand Forks
6. Red Wing
7. St. Paul United
8. Orono
9. Proctor / Hermantown
10. New Prague
Class A (Boys)
1. Hermantown
2. Duluth Marshall
3. East Grand Forks
4. Mahtomedi
5. Breck
6. Thief River Falls
7. Warroad
8. St. Paul Academy
9. Duluth Denfeld
10. Delano / Rockford
Class AA (Boys)
1. Lakeville North
2. Edina
3. St. Thomas Academy
4. Hill-Murray
5. Elk River / Zimmerman
6. Wayzata
7. Eden Prairie
8. Burnsville
9. Blaine
10. White Bear Lake
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