The Minnesota’s Wild’s 1st win in franchise history came against the Tampa Bay Lightning. It was a rare high scoring game during the inaugural season where they prevailed 6-5. This season (knock on wood), outcomes like that do not seem to be as uncommon as the Wild have overwhelmed opponents with their superior scoring depth. The Tampa Bay Lightning remember those high scoring days too from just a few years ago.
But things change even though sometimes people cling to what they used to know. I swear there are beat writers along the league that still believe Jacques Lemaire is the coach and that we play the trap and only are capable of winning 1-0 or 2-1 games. So will the Wild earn a win against Tampa Bay or will they be blitzed by the Lightning?
1st Period Thoughts: Well the first two minutes for Minnesota were not the kind you want to see. It feels like they were tentative and content to spend time in their own zone. Not how I like to see things go. Tampa Bay just looks more energized and ready to play. However, give them three more minutes, and the Wild line of Zach Parise, Erik Haula, and Jason Pominville would get some great chance on Andrei Vasilevskiy. Only problem is Pominville needing to find a way to score more of the prime chances that land on his stick. Minnesota is getting more and more of the close chances, including one by Jared Spurgeon, however they have failed to click. So far both Vasilevskiy and Devan Dubnyk have had to be ready in their respective ends. Where the Wild get the amazing shots that either go just wide of right into the goalie, the Lightning get nice, clean shots that Dubnyk sees coming. The first penalty would go to the Lightning’s Andrej Sustr for high-sticking. There were several things working against the Wild’s power play, even though they managed two shots on goal. First off, Tampa Bay was really effective of just getting in the way. However, there’s one concern of the Wild’s own making. That would be Eric Staal refusing to shoot time after time. He kind of reminded me of last season’s Mikko Koivu. Seriously, just shoot. He had some nice lanes to work with, and seriously, even if it doesn’t get all the way through, he had teammates there to support him. Another clear sign is that tonight’s game will have its own version of physical play. And it appears that the officials are going to let things go, including blatant interference and holding even when it interferes with getting to the loose puck in the offensive zone. My guess is they’re only going to call the things that must be called like high sticking and delay of game. With the numerous games on NBCSN, consider this my token complaint of their inability to display an important stat like shots on goal on the screen like FSN does. As this opening period quickly ticks by, we’d get some fisticuffs. As we heard frequently during the NBCSN game preview, Brian Boyle got into a fight with teammate Sustr. However instead of taking on a teammate, it would be Marco Scandella dropping the gloves. But if you were looking for a good fight, you should look further. Unfortunately, the fight would come at a bad time. With Scandella in the box and Mathew Dumba in the lockerroom after a hard hit earlier in the game, the Wild are now short two defenseman. Then if things were bad enough, Jason Zucker would head to the box for holding. Thankfully, Dumba would return to the bench. We’ll have to wait and see if he’s really okay or he felt a need to return with his fellow blueliner in the box for fighting. The Wild would successfully kill Zucker’s penalty. While this period started slow, it was nice to see Minnesota pick up their game. Now if they can avoid a down second period, like will be grand.
2nd Period Thoughts: I have to say that I laugh when the Wild get a break away. It usually comes on a stretch pass and it means there’s never any other Wild player in the zone to get the rebound. Vasilevskiy let up a juicy rebound on Pominville’s breakaway and there was no one there for follow up. Such is life of a Wild fan. One thing we heard so much about the Lightning during the pre-game and the first period was their amazing speed. Crazy thing though, it’s the Wild who have looked infinitely faster. My guess the lack of recognition of Minnesota’s speed is leftover belief that the Wild will do everything they can to slow the game down, much like the article coming out of the Winnipeg press after the Jets loss to Minnesota. You begin to wonder how much hockey both the local and national writers and broadcasters actually watch. I get the feeling that Parise is also suffering a little bit of last season’s “Koivu-itis” as he too is looking to pass tonight. He could have had a great shot on goal, but instead passed it to Pominville. I don’t understand the constant passing to Pominville, as he hasn’t shown the ability to finish. He’s not the Pominville who was money on my fantasy team back in the day (you know, when both he and Thomas Vanek were key components of the Buffalo Sabres). And truthfully, Parise needs the goals himself. This is a time to be a bit selfish. There are other people that can work on boosting Pominville’s self-confidence. In fact, there’s a lot of “Koivu-itis” going on on every line except for the line with Koivu on it. The latest example being Jordan Schroeder who should have taken the shot on goal on the rush instead of passing cross ice to Chris Stewart. Boyle would be sent to the box for tripping on Jared Spurgeon, although it seems that the penalty should have gone to Valteri Filppula. But since the theme song for NHL officials is “Three Blind Mice” you really can’t expect them to call the right player. I wasn’t feel much of the power play, especially with Pominville on the ice. The first goal of the game would come on the power play from Nino Niederreiter. The Lightning would get the tying goal off of a shot by Jason Garrison that would get deflected by Brayden Point. Shortly after that goal, the Lightning would head back to the power play after a Pominville high stick. Tampa Bay’s power play would end with an even up call after Victor Hedman called for holding. Both teams would head to the locker room with a tied game and a player in the box.
3rd Period Thoughts: Shortly into the period, the Wild would get their third power play of the game, amounting to just over a minute of power play time. Sometimes I think power plays of any length in those first two minutes of the period are difficult with fresh, often wet ice. It just seems like the conditions work against them, and they spend more time chasing pucks than setting anything up. And speaking of not setting anything up, in the early minutes of the final period much of it has been spent in the Wild end. Then when they do get it into the Lightning’s end of the ice, they make a boneheaded pass when a shot would be best. Those boneheaded passes then give possession back to Tampa Bay. The longer this game goes, it feels like it’s Minnesota’s game to lose. That’s not to say that the Wild aren’t getting their chances. However the chances never seem to fully realize to their full potential. This game is probably going to come down to a matter of centimeters or a lucky bounce for either side. And that’s feels like a ripoff. I want to see a game of determined skill. Sure, Minnesota is killing it in the faceoff, but that’s not equating to numerous goals tonight. And like Pierre McGuire just said, Wild head coach Bruce Boudreau is asking his players to start making plays instead of the chip shots that never create much of anything. They certainly don’t create possession and you end up spending more time than I’m comfortable with in the Wild’s zone. And for two fast teams, this game has been a snooze fest. I’m beginning to wonder where tonight’s version of the Wild came from, especially when they’re in the neutral zone. I’m not seeing their normal ease getting through the middle of the ice which of course is making it difficult to generate any pressure with extended possession in the offensive zone. With about a minute remaining in regulation, Charlie Coyle would head the box for high sticking. Thankfully, he took Gabriel Dumont with him for unsportsmanlike conduct. The Wild would put pressure on the Lightning and their goaltender, but couldn’t get the puck in behind Vasilevskiy. This game would end in a tie after regulation.
Overtime Thoughts: The Wild would get the first possession of the overtime, however a hard hit along the boards in the Lightning zone would cough the puck up briefly. However, the Wild would get it back quickly in their hands. Jonathan Drouin would create some havoc in front of Dubnyk, but a well timed Dumba stick would send the Wild defenseman on goal. Vasilevskiy would be up to the task of a Dumba scoring chance. Parise would also get his chance on the Tampa Bay goaltender as well, but he too would fall short. Parise would get an extended overtime shift and would continue to get some additional chances. At the horn, Granlund would get another chance after hard work on the part of the Finnish forward. And on to the shoot out we go.
Shootout Summary: In the shootout the Wild opted to shoot first and Minnesota’s first shooter was Jason Pominville who had been a perfect 3-for-3 going into this attempt. On the attempt he took a slow wide right approach but Vasilevskiy was all over it and didn’t bite on the shoulder fake and he blocked his shot wide. Tampa Bay’s first shooter was Brayden Point who raced down the middle of the ice but he’d fire a wrist shot wide right of Dubnyk. Minnesota then went to Mikko Koivu who moved a little to his left where he worked his patented forehand to backhand shelf move that didn’t have to be that great as Vasilevskiy lost his balance making it an easier finish. 1-0 Wild as it almost seemed to surprise Vasilevskiy which is in itself a bit surprising considering how many times Koivu has pulled off that move. Tampa Bay’s next shooter was Jonathan Drouin who went wide left but he too tried firing as shot to the right that missed wide. This gave Zach Parise a chance to end it and the alternate captain would take a slow winding approach but his attempt to go backhander was easily dismissed by the patient Russian. That meant the Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov had the game on his stick and he’d move in and again try to score to the right side that also missed wide giving Minnesota a 2-1 shootout victory.
Wild Notes:
~ The Wild roster tonight was as follows: Mikko Koivu, Jason Zucker, Mikael Granlund, Eric Staal, Nino Niederreiter, Charlie Coyle, Erik Haula, Jason Pominville, Zach Parise, Chris Stewart, Tyler Graovac, Jordan Schroeder, Ryan Suter, Jared Spurgeon, Marco Scandella, Mathew Dumba, Nate Prosser and Gustav Olofsson. Darcy Kuemper backed up Devan Dubnyk. Christian Folin was the lone healthy scratch.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star Devan Dubnyk, 2nd Star Andrei Vasilevskiy, 3rd Star Zach Parise
~ Attendance was 19,178 at Xcel Energy Center.
Wild Prospect Report:
D – Gustav Bouramman (Sault Ste. Marie, OHL) ~ It has been kind of a disappointing season for Bouramman who hasn’t found his way onto the scoring sheet that much in the last two months. On Wednesday Bouramman registered an assist (1 shot on goal) in their 3-1 win over Saginaw. The Stockholm-native has 2 goals, 26 points and 30 PIM’s and is a +3 in 50 games.
C – Dmitry Sokolov (Sudbury, OHL) ~ the Wolves’ sniper keeps find the back of the net as he had a goal on 3 shots in Sudbury’s 2-1 loss to Peterborough on Thursday night. Sokolov has 36 goals, 54 points, 4 PIM’s and is a -20 in 46 games.
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