Koivu Surprises Everyone With Game Winning Goal in 2-1 Overtime Victory Over Edmonton

“It looked like we were skating through quicksand…and when you skate slow bad things happen.” ~ Wild Head Coach Bruce Boudreau after Friday night’s 3-2 shootout loss to Calgary

Some games don’t need much of an introduction based solely on how has a team performed the last few games.  Tonight’s game against Edmonton is one of those times as the Wild play one of the more explosive and dynamic teams in the league after two sluggish, uninspired efforts against Vancouver and Calgary respectively.  No sooner than the Wild failed to score in the shoout then fans began Tweeting about how a similar effort to the one they had on Friday was going to yield an epic blowout at the hands of the Oilers who are finally living up to the hype.

Speaking of hype, are the Wild living up to the hype these days?  Earning ‘loser points’ in Vancouver and Calgary isn’t what one would expect from a team hoping to take that next step as a franchise.  Edmonton is having a great season in its new arena and the Wild seem to be starting their annual December swoon.  Can the Wild prove they still have some fire by earning an upset victory in Edmonton or will their young stars leave them star struck?

1st Period Thoughts:  The Wild would try to go after the Oilers to start the period but it became evident right away the Wild were a few steps slower than the speedy Edmonton squad.  Connor McDavid clearly had a few gears no one on the Wild had as Minnesota was doing their best to try to stay with the speedy center.  It still wasn’t enough as the Wild’s 4th line struggled to keep up with the speed of the Oilers and they’d score first as Mark Fayne blasted a shot from the point that was stopped by Devan Dubnyk and the rebound was swept up by Patrick Maroon who buried it by the sprawling Minnesota goalie.  1-0 Oilers.  The next 6-7 minutes the Wild seemed to play with fire as the Oilers tilted the ice in the Minnesota end and it looked like an extended Edmonton power play even during 4-on-4 after coincidental minors to matching slashing minors to Chris Stewart and Zack Kassian.  Jason Pominville would take a lazy hooking penalty on Matthew Benning and the potent Oilers’ power play would go to work.  Minnesota kept good active sticks and did their best to deny time and space from Edmonton, but failed clearing attempts meant it got more than a little uncomfortable.  A friendly shot off the post and a few nice stops from Dubnyk kept Edmonton from adding to their lead.  Kurtis Gabriel would drop the gloves with Zack Kassian and after landing a few quick jabs, Kassian would take over and tag Gabriel with a few big punches that knocked down the Wild youngster.  A clearcut win for Kassian.  Gabriel would go to the box so Wild Head Coach Bruce Boudreau had to switch up his lines so he put Zach Parise on the 4th line.  The Wild would work the puck in deep and this lead to Nino Niederreiter sweeping up the puck and taking it to the net where he was stonewalled twice by Jonas Gustavsson before the rebound moved out into the slot and was shoveled home by Charlie Coyle tying the game at one.  Minnesota didn’t challenge Gustavsson much that period but crashing the net is certainly something we need to see more from this team.  The veterans like Mikko Koivu, Eric Staal and Parise seemed to be struggling with the overall pace of play which is a bit troubling considering the Oilers playing the 2nd game of a back-to-back.

2nd Period Thoughts:  The 2nd period was more of a chess match as both clubs were denying time and space well forcing both teams to settle for shots from the perimeter.  Minnesota was moving its feet better and the result was more even play with the Oilers who finally started to exhibit some signs that they had played the night before.  The Wild were still giving Edmonton some chances that Minnesota had hoped to avoid in the form of two Oilers’ power plays.  Minnesota’s penalty kill did a good job at preventing the Oilers from working pucks into the middle of the ice and the Wild were able to come away with two power plays with little in the way of quality scoring chances given up.  The Wild were also starting to frustrate the Oilers a bit as Nate Prosser leveled McDavid with a big hit that drew the ire of Milan Lucic who slashed at the leg of the Elk River, Minnesota-native that gave the Wild a power play.  On the man advantage, inaccurate passing really prevented it from generating any quality scoring chances so all Minnesota really did was just waste two minutes.  The Wild’s best scoring chances in the period came late as Parise rang a shot off the post and a few minutes later it was Mathew Dumba stepping into a slap shot that was stopped by Gustavsson and just out of the reach of a crashing Tyler Graovac.  Minnesota must stay out of the box and they need to attack the net more frequently.  Gustavsson is giving up big rebounds so the opportunity is there if the Wild wish to seize it.

3rd Period Thoughts:  The Wild appeared to be on the cusp of tallying the go-ahead goal throughout most of the first half of the 3rd period.  Minnesota was hustling well and taking the puck to the net and Gustavsson found himself busier than he had been in the previous two periods combined.  At times the Wild got the first shot on goal and the rebound would sit precariously a few feet in front of the blue paint but Minnesota just couldn’t manage to get a stick on the biscuit to put a rebound chance on goal.  The Wild were winning the territorial battle as perhaps the fatigue was starting to take a toll on Edmonton.  Minnesota had a great chance midway through the period as Tyler Graovac got a step on the Oilers’ defense and he was tripped by by Mark Letestu as he fired a backhand on goal that was stopped by Gustavsson who gave up a big rebound and Parise swept up the puck and he’d send a shot on the empty goal that would hit Letestu and miss wide to the right of the goal.  Letestu would get a tripping penalty but it was a golden opportunity missed by the Wild alternate captain.  The Wild power play was terribly ineffective, bad passes and being soft in board battles allowed the Oilers to keep Minnesota to the perimeter.  Minnesota again failed to register a single shot on the power play.  It was obvious that both teams were pretty exhausted as they were both attempting long area passes and hoping their forwards would win the race.  This mostly led to easy turnovers and the occasional odd-man chance but Gustavsson and Dubnyk were good at making the initial saves.  One of the few players for the Wild that seemed to have a little jump left in his legs was Charlie Coyle who looked to make a solo rush almost every shift he was on the ice in the 3rd.  He nearly cashed in on a wrap around chance only to be stymied by Fayne.  A few minutes after that close call, it was Mikael Granlund poking a puck to Coyle who fired a shot on goal that Gustavsson stopped and Minnesota kept hacking at the puck but couldn’t do anything with the rebound and the game would go to overtime.

Overtime Thoughts:  I really felt the Wild were flirting with disaster early on the power play by trotting out Mikko Koivu, Mikael Granlund and Jonas Brodin.  It didn’t start well as the Wild got caught deep and the Oilers took advantage of it on the counter attack and the Wild’s next group of players had to waste their time to work the puck out of the Minnesota zone.  Minnesota then followed it up with a shift with Ryan Suter who chased a puck to the half wall and then he’d take it to the net that was stopped by Gustavsson as Coyle crashed into the net and the puck wound go into the goal.  The goal would be reviewed but it was determined the whistle had blown before it crossed the goal line so it was ‘no goal.’  Minnesota would then sort of bide their time and stretch out the Oilers and then they attacked with speed through the neutral zone and it was Coyle feeding Koivu who dangled around a defender and then made another nice move to beat Gustavsson on the backhand giving the Wild a big 2-1 overtime victory.

Devan Dubnyk kept the Wild in the game perhaps when they had little reason to be, making 28 saves in the victory.  He stayed square in his crease and wasn’t guessing as much and was a source of stability all game long.  He made some great saves on odd-man rushes and a few breakaway chances.  Defensively the Wild did better in the 2nd and 3rd period to keep the Oilers from being able to create much of anything from in close.  The Wild penalty kill finished a perfect 2-for-2.

Offensively the Wild had its best success when they crashed the net and worked the puck in close.  Minnesota needs to do that more frequently against any team let alone the Oilers.  The Wild just don’t have the kinds of skilled guys that can reliably snipe from the perimeter.  Charlie Coyle had a great game and it was good to see him using his strength and speed to will himself some chances on a team that has been guilty of being a club waiting for someone else to step up their game.  Nino Niederreiter was also a decent catalyst this season.  Overtime worked out even though the team did not use its speediest combinations and I think the team lucked out in that regard.

This was a big confidence building win for a club that had let the extra point slip away in the last two games.  Those extra point misses had allowed their opponents to nudge closer to the Wild in the standings and this win puts Minnesota back in 3rd place in the always tough Central Division.  The Wild have one more game on the road trip as they go to Toronto where they face a similar team with a plethora of young, talented players and a high scoring offense.  Hopefully they can rest up to finish the road trip strong.

Wild Notes:

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

~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star Devan Dubnyk, 2nd Star Jonas Gustavsson, 3rd Star Mikko Koivu

~ Attendance was 18,347 at Rogers Place.

Iowa Wild Report:

Iowa 4, Grand Rapids 3 SO

It was a rare night in Van Andel Arena as the Iowa Wild won just their 3rd game ever in Grand Rapids with a solid road effort.  The Wild would jump out to an early lead as Mario Lucia stripped Marc-Louis Aubrey of the puck and then fed a pass to Colton Beck who went top shelf on Eddie Pasquale to put Iowa up 1-0.  The Griffins would answer back as they took advantage of a neutral zone turnover where Matt Lorito set up Martin Frk for an easy goal before Alex Stalock could get across his crease.  Iowa would then score late in the 1st to take the lead thanks to a power play tally by Pat Cannone who pounced on a partially tipped Jordan Schroeder pass to give the Wild a 2-1 lead going into the 2nd period.  The Wild would add to its lead in the 2nd as Hunter Warner let go a wrist shot from the point that went off a few legs and managed to elude Pasquale to give Iowa a two-goal cushion, 3-1.  Matt Lorito would get a puck near his own blueline and turn on the jets and fly by the Wild defense and he beat Stalock on a snap shot to cut the Iowa lead to one going into the 3rd period.  In the 3rd period the Wild did all they could to defend their lead but with a late power play it was Martin Frk tying the game on a blast from the point with 8.8 seconds to send the game to overtime.  Overtime would settle nothing and the game would go to a shootout.  Stalock would shut the door on all 3 of the Griffins shooters while Colton Beck was able to beat Pasquale to give Iowa a 4-3 win.  Stalock had 27 saves in the victory.

Wild Prospect Report:

C – Dmitri Sokolov (Sudbury, OHL) ~ the Russian winger keeps lighting the lamp which is good, but the flip side is an alarming +/- that keeps getting worse game by game.  The Omsk, Russia-native had 2 goals, 9 shots on goal and was a -4 in the Wolves’ 6-5 loss to North Bay on Friday night.  The sniper’s hot streak continued on Saturday as he netted a goal and chipped in an assist to go along with 4 shots on goal and was a +1 as the Wolves routed Barrie 3-0.  Sokolov has 19 goals, 25 points, 4 PIM’s and is a -16 in 25 games.

G – Ales Stezka (Chicago, USHL) ~ the Liberec, Czech Republic-native came up big on Friday night, making 25 saves in the Steel’s 2-1 win over Youngstown.  Stezka has a 7-3 record, a 2.09 goals against average and a .923% save percentage and 3 shutouts.

RW – Luke Kunin (Wisconsin, Big 10) ~ the skilled forward was held scoreless on Friday but he made up for it on Saturday by scoring twice in Wisconsin’s 7-4 loss to Nebraska-Omaha.  Kunin has 9 goals, 14 points, 14 PIM’s and is a -5 in 14 games.

C/LW – Joel Eriksson Ek (Farjestad, SHL) ~ the super skilled forward was sent back to Sweden to continue to hone his game and benefit from prime ice time on his Eliteserien squad.  So far its been decent being back home as he has 2 goals, 6 PIM’s and is a +1 in 6 games.