Minnesota’s trips to Buffalo used to be the pivot point for the Wild’s season. If they lose, the axe probably falls on their head coach or the team goes on a crazy run towards the post season. For whatever reason the Wild’s annual game in Buffalo usually occurred around the mid-season mark, but this time Minnesota is playing the Sabres early in the season (both home and away). I feel pretty safe in saying the coaching staff is not on the hot seat at this point, and Minnesota’s season seems to be going well enough so far (knock on wood).
The Sabres had hoped to take another step forward as an organization as they made moves in free agency (Kyle Okposo) and trades (Dmitry Kulikov) to accelerate the rebuild. Unfortunately injuries have left the team feeling a bit empty and they find themselves again at the bottom of their division. Will the Wild become the Sabres’ pivot point or will Minnesota finish their 4-game road trip with another victory?
1st Period Thoughts: The Wild started the game with good energy and pep to their step and the Sabres found themselves on their heels. It was a nice change of pace for a club that usually started games somewhere between sleepy and unconscious. Not only were the feet moving, but Minnesota was sending shots on goal and Anders Nilsson found himself under siege. All four lines were really working and the Wild would strike first from an unlikely source. Joel Eriksson Ek, who was coming off a 3-point night against Boston would race into the Sabres’ zone and he’d dangle around Jake McCabe and then rifle a shot from just underneath the right faceoff dot that beat Nilsson. 1-0 Wild. Eriksson Ek was calm after his snipe and Minnesota renewed their domination of the Sabres. Minnesota was outhustling and outworking Buffalo for loose pucks and when they attempted counter attack the Wild were denying time and space and the Sabres didn’t have much of an answer. Buffalo tried to answer back with a power game as they started to try to crash the net in an attempt to rattle Devan Dubnyk. Dubnyk was solid but it was not without incident as Marco Scandella would get his legs wrapped underneath the Sabres’ Nick Deslauriers that left him hobbling big time to the Minnesota bench and down the tunnel. The Wild have missed not having Jared Spurgeon as it is, to then lose Scandella. The Wild would add to its lead 10 minutes later as Ryan Suter fed a puck up to Chris Stewart who saw a passing lane through the middle of the ice to a streaking Jason Zucker and he threaded a beauty of a pass. Zucker turned on the jets and raced in and beat Nilsson forehand to backhand. 2-0 Wild. Beyond Scandella’s injury, the only other set back was the team’s performance on the man advantage where again it seems to have been reduced to Suter wrist shots from the point again which was a strategy that rarely yielded goals for the team the last few seasons so why go through that again? Hopefully Minnesota keeps applying pressure in the 2nd.
2nd Period Thoughts: The 2nd period was all Sabres. They were storming the Wild zone early and often and piling up the shots on goal as they did. They were pinching defenseman and looking for an early goal to change the tone of the game but Devan Dubnyk was a rock. He was seeing the puck well and getting good support from Minnesota’s defense who was playing a man down thanks to Scandella’s injury. Christian Folin was a warrior, showing good strength on the puck and working it out of the zone. The Sabres at times looked very dangerous; particularly Tyler Ennis who was all kinds of shifty as he used quick turns to elude the Wild defense and work himself open to shoot the puck. Luckily Dubnyk and the Wild defense was up to task to sweep away dangerous rebounds before they could pounce. Dubnyk was doing a great job of staying square and not getting pushed off his angle as the Sabres tried crashing the crease. The Wild did get a little more assertive defensively; as they had a much better penalty killing effort late in the period by challenging zone entries that never allowed Buffalo to get anything going offensively. The Wild even applied a little offensive pressure in the closing minutes but the truth was the Wild were playing with fire far too long. Just to put it in perspective, they were up 13-8 in shots going into the 2nd and finished the 2nd being outshot 27-17. You can’t expect to win many games with that kind of a period. Still, it was 2-0 which had to have been more than a little frustrating for Buffalo going into the 3rd. Can the Wild bear down and finish off the Sabres?
3rd Period Thoughts: Minnesota had a much better effort in the 3rd, where they competed instead of sitting back and defending their two-goal lead. The Wild were hustling for pucks and taking the body to make plays and the Sabres were compelled to play defense. Ryan Suter would score an understated goal on a wrist shot that seemed to catch Nilsson by surprise that gave Minnesota a 3-0 advantage an sort of deflated the Sabres in the process. Remember, Buffalo had 19 shots in the 2nd and looked to be on the verge of making this a one-goal game but were unable to solve Dubnyk and now they were trailing by 3. Minnesota would earn a power play shortly thereafter and the Wild nearly cashed in right away as Mikael Granlund missed on an open net. Granlund seems to be feeling the pressure of being goal-less so far. The Sabres just didn’t seem to have the legs nor the desire to make a real strong push to make this a competitive game. Mikko Koivu would add an empty net tally to seal a 4-0 victory.
Devan Dubnyk was solid, stopping all 38 shots he faced. I thought he was solid, but I didn’t think he was tested tremendously this evening though. He was solid, making the first save and squaring up to deny the rebound or it was swept aside by his defenseman. Christian Folin had a tremendous game as did Ryan Suter and Jonas Brodin. Losing Marco Scandella to what was a lower body injury had to be scary but the team picked up the slack from those minutes Scandella left on the table and played well with it. The penalty kill was again perfect against an above average Sabres’ power play.
Offensively the Wild got contributions from its secondary lines this evening with goals from Eriksson Ek who is playing like a player a lot older than 19 years old and Jason Zucker who seems to be using his speed to create scoring chances again. The power play still needs some work, and I’d like to see Nino Niederreiter or even Zucker get a chance with the man advantage more than they currently do. Eric Staal probably deserved a penalty shot, but I like how assertive he’s playing and he keeps finding ways to contribute offensively and he has been a nice addition to the team. Minnesota’s scoring balance is really impressive right now, even 3rd and 4th liners are finding their way onto the scoresheet every 3-4 games which is huge to take pressure off the Wild’s top lines.
The back-to-back shutouts was a great way for the Wild to finish its 4-game road trip. 5 points out of a possible 8 isn’t too bad and Minnesota now returns home with some confidence. They’ll need it against the Dallas Stars which were the Wild’s nemesis last season. I said prior to the start of the season, that Saturday’s game will be a bit of a defining moment for Wild to see if they can better compete against Dallas. The effort wasn’t perfect, but they still got the job done which is all that matters.
Wild Notes:
~ The Wild roster tonight was as follows: Mikko Koivu, Mikael Granlund, Zach Parise, Eric Staal, Charlie Coyle, Nino Niederreiter, Erik Haula, Chris Stewart, Jason Pominville, Zac Dalpe, Joel Eriksson Ek, Teemu Pulkkinen, Ryan Suter, Mathew Dumba, Jonas Brodin, Christian Folin, Nate Prosser and Marco Scandella. Darcy Kuemper backed up Devan Dubnyk. Erik Haula and Jared Spurgeon were the scratches.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star Devan Dubnyk, 2nd Star Ryan Suter, 3rd Star Joel Eriksson Ek
~ Attendance was 18,122 at First Niagara Center.
Iowa Wild Report:
Record: 2-4-0 4pts 7th in the Central
18.2% Power Play (12th in the AHL)
83.3% Penalty Kill (15th in the AHL)
Top 5 Scorers:
1. #8 Zach Palmquist ~ 1G 3A = 4pts
2. #22 Mario Lucia ~ 1G 2A = 3pts
3. #14 Adam Gilmour ~ 1G 2A = 3pts
4. #28 Grayson Downing ~ 1G 2A = 3pts
5. #44 Christoph Bertschy ~ 1G 2A = 3pts
Top 3 PIM’s:
1. #39 Kurtis Gabriel ~ 19 PIM’s
2. #4 Tyler Graovac ~ 11 PIM’s
3. #10 Jordan Schroeder ~ 8 PIM’s
Top Goaltenders:
1. #32 Alex Stalock (1-4-0) 4.28GAA .871%SP
2. #34 Stephen Michalek (1-0-0) 3.34GAA .900%SP
Recent Score: Iowa 3, Cleveland 7
It has been an all too familiar story in Des Moines, ‘Iowa Wild blown out in home loss’ and it happened again Tuesday night against defending Calder Cup champion Cleveland. Poor defensive coverage gave the Monsters prime scoring chances and they buried them past two goaltenders who have been struggling to start this season. The post-game quotes kind of tell the story. “It is 9 minutes of team hockey, We look like a winning team. Then it is a huge mistake and they are in the back of the net,” said Iowa Wild Head Coach Derek Lalonde. Jordan Schroeder echoed that frustration when he told reporters after the game, “Giving up six,seven goals is way too many. We are leaving our goalies out to dry. It is frustrating,” Schroeder said. “We have to turn it around. There are too many times when it is not consistent.” You can see the ‘highlights’ in the YouTube clip below.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S09bZmKzWEw&w=560&h=315]Wild Prospect Report:
G – Kaapo Kahkonen (Luuko Rauma, Sm-Liiga) ~ the goaltender has yet to provide a win for his club, but has given solid starts as he’s gone 0-4-5 with a 2.21GAA and a .921%SP.
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