After an improbable victory on Saturday afternoon the Wild are playing their 2nd game in as many nights as the Winnipeg Jets come to town. Since the NHL returned to Winnipeg, their fans have made their mark at the friendly confines of Xcel Energy Center as they do their best to try to make it at least a little hostile. It is this willingness to travel that sets Winnipeg fans apart from the fans of many other teams in the Central Division, but its also meant among Wild fans that Jets fans have quickly become persona non grata at home. With the Jets sitting closer to the top in the Central Division standings will only add to that irritation and it should make for a spirited Sunday tilt. Both clubs need the points and any match up is essentially a 4-point game.
The Jets are feeling the sting of a 2-1 loss against the Nashville Predators Saturday night. No doubt Jets’ bench boss Paul Maurice will try to rally his squad to take their frustrations out on the Wild. The Wild haven’t had a lot of experience in back to backs; but since both clubs have played the day before there really is no advantage for either team. It will likely come down to who wants the 2 points more, will the Wild make it a 3rd straight victory?
1st Period Thoughts: With the abysmal state of the Minnesota Wild’s power play, I’m not sure how I feel about essentially starting the game with the man advantage. Blake Wheeler was assessed an early holding call. If the Wild’s power play scoring woes weren’t bad enough, the Winnipeg Jets have the #2 penalty kill in the league. So while it seemed that Minnesota just wasn’t able to set things up, especially when we have to endure the ineffectiveness of the top power play unit, Nino Niederreiter finds a way to reassure us that maybe things aren’t quite so bad. Niederreiter was able to get Ondrej Pavelec to bite. I have on occasion found the minute after a power play goal dangerous for the team that scored, as often the team that was scored on can be energized. Instead, Minnesota decided to continue in its scoring, as just two minutes later, Zach Parise found the back of the net in his first game back from injury. I do worry however, because sometimes the one thing I hate to see with the Wild is to see them score two goals in the first 4 minutes. But what I hate to see even more are injured Wild players, especially since Parise is just back and we’ve been battling the mumps. Jason Zucker went into the boards hard and at a bit of a weird angle. However, that wasn’t bad enough, as Mark Stuart decided that he needed to take not just one or two pushes at Zucker when he was on the ice, but more like three or four. It’s those extra hits that can be almost just as dangerous, and you wonder if those extra hits will ever be looked at by the league. As we get closer to the midway point of the period, it’s interesting to see that Winnipeg has yet to get a shot on goal. I’m not sure yet if it’s a good thing or not for Wild goaltenders, because often when they do see shots, they look very slow or out of position. The Wild came close to making it a 3-0 on a shot by Jared Spurgeon from the blueline, but the linesmen said it just crossed the blue line and it hit the pipe. While it wasn’t a goal, shots like that can shake a goaltender up. The first Wild penalty would go to it’s first goal scorer for hooking. Then to add insult to injury, Minnesota would add to their penalty woes, with a too-many men call. The Jets would then get their first and second shots on goal of the game. Minnesota was able to kill both the 5-on-3 and the remaining power play time. Shortly after the kill, Minnesota would go on a power play of their own after Erik Haula was boarded by Andrew Ladd. I’d like to see another power play goal, but I don’t know if it’s possible. While it was pretty much another ineffective power play, what was crazy about it, is that there where some unbelievable plays that would keep the puck in the Wild’s possession. I just wish that while they work that hard on holding on to the puck, that they would work even harder at shooting the puck on goal. Yes, I know that’s often a novel concept. So appears that Minnesota is going to make up for that sad power play in other ways, such as a late period goal, and goal number two of the night for Parise. And as the final buzzer on the period sounded, the Wild seemed to take their time heading to the locker room. It appears that’s because of a penalty being assessed to Ryan Suter for slashing, so Minnesota will start the period on the penalty kill. Hopefully that doesn’t come back to bite them.
2nd Period Thoughts: If anything, the Wild did chase Pavelec from the game. Sometimes though, we have a habit of making the back up goaltender look great. Minnesota will need to first kill the Suter penalty before they get a chance to test Michael Hutchinson. So before we’re allowed to do that, Keith Ballard and Andrew Ladd decided to throw down the gloves as a result of Ballard roughing up Ladd trying to get him away from the crease of Niklas Backstrom. Winnipeg would continue however to get their chances on the power play. Just under four minutes into the period, there was a period of sloppy play in the corner next to Backstrom’s net. Out of all the things they could have called, the officials decided to call Suter for cross-checking. Then if that wasn’t bad enough, not too far into the Jets’ power play, Zucker would be called for high sticking. This would be Winnipeg’s second 5-on-3 of the night, and even after the play has started, Matthieu Perrault would continue whining from the bench asking for a double minor to Zucker. Thankfully the referees chose to ignore the complaints. Minnesota was able to kill Suter’s penalty. Of course just seconds from Zucker’s penalty expiring, Suter would find himself back in the box for sending the puck over the glass. While that penalty is one that has to be called, it kind of feels like someone in the league really wants the Jets back in this one. Near the end of Suter’s penalty, Wild coaches Mike Yeo and Darryl Sydor were in a shouting match with referee Brad Watson. Ballard would later deliver a beautifully clean, textbook hip check, which made the Jets’ Dustin Byfuglien and Adam Pardy retaliate. The Wild would be awarded a power play that didn’t net much of anything, but just as Byfuglien’s penalty ended, Stuart would head to the box. Tonight, it’s the second power play unit having a hard time setting much up. On many night’s so far this season, they’ve had the better chances than the top unit. What makes me nervous, is that so far, all scoring has been in the first period. With just five minutes remaining in the period, I get worried wondering if the lead will get away from Minnesota in the third. Add that to the fact that Ryan Carter and Evander Kane would both be assessed double minors for roughing with just over four minutes remaining. Clearly some bad blood is bubbling up between these two team, and it should make for an interesting series throughout the season. Then, just when you think things couldn’t get worse, Chris Thorburn and Ballard would be called for roughing and hooking, but the referees would add insult to injury, adding an additional minor to Ballard for embellishment. Amazingly, the two teams would play the waning seconds of the period even strength and managed to not take any additional penalties at the buzzer. Oh and as an aside, Charlie Coyle, if you want to score goals, you need to shoot. Why he chose to pass the puck and to Thomas Vanek no less, is absolutely ridiculous.
3rd Period Thoughts: The early minutes of the period would be spent in front of Backstom, but strangely enough, without a penalty. Of course just as a finish typing that sentence, Adam Lowry would head to the Winnipeg penalty box for interference. Due to sloppy play, Backstrom would have to come up big as Ladd would get a short-handed shot on goal. I’m glad to say that Backstrom is looking pretty calm and relaxed this game. We don’t always see that from him. And truth of the matter, he plays better when he can play relaxed. He’s had Winnipeg players in his face and making contact with him, yet he hasn’t allowed that to ruffle his feathers. If we can get more play like that from Backstrom, we might be okay as far as goaltending. However, his skaters decided they didn’t want to give him much support as Michael Frolik would score the Jet’s first goal of the night. Minnesota needs to rebound from the goal, and Parise attempted a hat trick, but the puck went over the net. The Wild need to find a way to tighten up their play from the sloppy play we’ve seen so far this period, and get the puck into the Jets’ zone and keep it there. There are numerous times in a game, where I wonder “why did they make that pass?” It’s as if they only want to pass to one person and it doesn’t matter that they’re not in a good place on the ice to receive a pass. And when you make those kinds of stupid passes, Evander Kane is allowed to score the second Jets’ goal. Remember when I said I was nervous that Minnesota scored three goals in the first? This is exactly why I hate to take such a decisive lead early in the game. Minnesota tends to be lazy and careless. The Wild had the energy in the first period and now that energy has been lost and given to their opponent. Between the penalties and now the lazy play, Minnesota continues to make games much more difficult than they need to. They made it even more difficult with bad passing and bad plays because Winnipeg then tied the game with a goal by Ladd. That third goal, chased Backstrom from the net and Darcy Kuemper would take over. To make things even worse, the Jets are outshooting the Wild. There is simply no chemistry or determination by Minnesota at this time. These are the kinds of games that are frustrating, and ultimately deserve to lose. They’re not even doing the little things right. While Parise may have two goals in this game, when he make the lazy poke in an attempt to clear the zone instead of skating the puck out of the zone, well that’s a problem. And then Suter takes his fourth minor of the night, which is not good. Winnipeg, while they’ve been unsuccessful on the power play tonight, they have all of the momentum now. Minnesota was able to kill the penalty, but not without some heartstopping moments for Kuemper. Vanek did get a shot on goal late in the last minute, but the puck was bouncing and never really got a great one. Sadly, a game that was in the Wild’s hands has slipped away, and we’re heading to overtime.
Overtime Thoughts: I don’t care what it takes, but Minnesota needs to find a way to pepper Hutchinson with shots and keep the puck in the Jets’ zone. Which of course something they haven’t been able to do since the first period. This game officially fell apart in the second period with all the Wild penalties. While the penalties for the most part were deserved, the problem is that the Jets were allowed to do the same kinds of things without penalty. Thankfully, Minnesota would find some zone time, unfortunately at the last minute, Wild sticks would be lifted. In a slow set-up, Marco Scandella would get a quick wrister off from the blue line, finding the back of the net behind Hutchinson. For a player like Scandella who appeared to not be 100% after his bout with mumps, but I’ll take a game winning goal. The bad thing about this game, is that since we didn’t win it in regulation, we fail to leap-frog Winnipeg in the standings. It’s sad when a win can feel like a loss.
Wild Notes:
~ The Wild roster was as follows: Charlie Coyle, Mikko Koivu, Zach Parise, Justin Fontaine, Jason Zucker, Ryan Carter, Kyle Brodziak, Nino Niederreiter, Thomas Vanek, Jason Pominville, Erik Haula, Mikael Granlund, Keith Ballard, Marco Scandella, Ryan Suter, Nate Prosser, Jared Spurgeon, and Matt Dumba. Darcy Kuemper served as a back up to Niklas Backstrom.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star, Zach Parise; 2nd Star, Jared Spurgeon; 3rd Star, Marco Scandella.
~ Attendance was 18,808 at Xcel Energy Center.
Iowa Wild Report:
Recent Score: Iowa 4, Oklahoma City 5
Iowa got out to a fast start as Joel Rechlicz, known more as a fighter redirected a point shot by Christian Folin to give the Wild a 1-0 lead. The Barons would answer back as Anton Lander scored on the power play. Oklahoma City would then get the go-ahead goal 3 minutes later as Travis Ewanyk found the twine behind Johan Gustafsson to make it 2-1 Barons. The Wild would answer back with two quick scores late in the period, including a tally on a 5-on-3 power play by Tyler Graovac and Brett Sutter at even strength to give Iowa a 3-2 lead going into the 1st intermission. As the period ended, a brawl broke out as Kurt Gogol pounded Steve Pinizzotto, while Brady Brassart got beaten rather thoroughly by Mitch Moroz. The Barons would tie the game in the 2nd period as Lander scored his 2nd goal of the game. Iowa would score late in the 2nd as a long outlet pass found Brett Bulmer for a breakaway where he went forehand to backhand back to his forehand for a pretty finish to give the Wild a 4-3 lead going into the 3rd. Unfortunately that is as close as it got for Iowa as Curtis Hamilton and a point shot by Bemidji State’s Brad Hunt led the Barons to a 5-4 win in front of 8,592 at Des Moines’ Wells Fargo arena on Saturday night. Gustafsson had 35 saves in the loss. It was the Wild’s first loss under John Torchetti this season, as Iowa drops to 4-10.
Wild Prospect Report:
RW – Lou Nanne (RPI, ECAC) ~ The former Edina star had a goal in the Engineers 3-1 loss to Quinnipiac on Saturday night. Nanne leads RPI in scoring with 4 goals, 7 points, 6 PIM’s in 12 games this season.
C – Reid Duke (Brandon, WHL) ~ The Calgary-native is steadily becoming a key offensive workhorse for the Wheat Kings after chipping in a goal and an assist as well as 4 PIM’s in Brandon’s 3-2 shootout victory over Medicine Hat. Duke has 6 goals, 18 points, 22 PIM’s and is a +12 in 17 games.
D – Dylan Labbe (Shawinigan, QMJHL) ~ The two-way defenseman had an assist, a hit and +2 rating in the Cataractes 7-4 loss at the hands of Val ‘d Or on Saturday night. The St. Benjamin, Quebec-native has 4 goals, 12 points, 15 PIM’s and is a +6 in 20 games this season.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
