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Groin, the very mention of the word makes Wild fans cringe. Why? It usually means that star winger, Marian Gaborik has managed to get hurt yet again. This is especially painful, no pun intended when you consider how the team worked so hard during this off-season with the hope it would not become an issue. Compounding this situation, was his friend and teammate Pavol Demitra also suffering a groin injury. Once again the Wild will have to find away to win without their dynamic Slovakian duo. If there is anything fortunate about the timing of this recent bout of groin injuries, is that after this game team will not be playing for 6 days. Hopefully that will be enough time to get everyone healthy. This will put the focus back on the 2nd and 3rd line to step up their game to try to boost their offensive production as they faceoff against division rival Edmonton Oilers tonight at the Xcel Energy Centre.
The Wild seemed a bit slow at the start of the first period, but quickly they’d start playing with more energy and Minnesota would start to pressure the young and battered Oilers. Former Chicoutimi Sagueneens’ star, Pierre-Marc Bouchard would draw a penalty on Robert Nilsson when he hooked former CHL player of the year yielding the Wild’s first power play. Minnesota did not take long to strike on the man advantage, as Petteri Nummelin who was playing on the wing tonight would give a fantastic and laser-like diagonal pass that went right onto the stick of Mark Parrish who fired it home by former Wild goaltender Dwayne Roloson to put the State of Hockey up 1-0. Minnesota’s pressure would continue and despite giving the Oilers’ a power play they would quickly even it up because they were being aggressive compelling Jarrett Stoll to hook a racing Brian Rolston, the Oilers would help out the Wild when just after the 4-on-4 ended Steve Staios was given a delay of game for clearing the puck into the crowd. On the power play Minnesota moved the puck with great precision and generated some great chances on Roloson, but were unable to capitalize. The Oilers tried to rally back with some good forechecking work and the Wild perhaps feeling content with their lead stopped moving their feet, and Eric Belanger was called for holding. On the ensuing penalty kill, Mikko Koivu seemed almost like a one-man penalty kill unit as he disrupted the Oilers’ passing lanes and even turning one of his intercepts into a shorthanded rush only to be foiled by a slash by Dick Tarnstrom that wasn’t called. Minnesota would make a big splash offensively, late in the 1st when another Oilers penalty had the Wild putting another showcase on the power play with tremendous puck movement that drew another penalty when Tarnstrom tried to hook Brent Burns, and on the delayed call the Wild kept firing shots at Roloson. The Oilers could not get control of the puck to draw a faceoff, and the puck would end up on the stick of Pierre-Marc Bouchard who would rip a wrister by Roli the goalie to give the Wild a 2-0 lead, and as an added bonus the team was still going to have a 2:00 power play to work with. The State of Hockey took just 9 seconds to light the lamp a second time when a great cross ice pass by Bouchard to a streaking Kurtis Foster and he entered the Edmonton zone and unleashed a slapper that blew past Roloson for the team to put Minnesota up 3-0 going into the 2nd period.
Looking for a change of attitude, Edmonton Head Coach Craig MacTavish took Roloson out of the net, in exchange for Mathieu Garon. The Oilers tried to be more physical, sending their tough guy Zach Stortini to try and goad Wild enforcer Derek Boogaard into a fight, although his check would result in an interference call than a chance to drop the gloves against the “Boogeyman” and Minnesota would make them pay. The power play would be another exhibition of great passing and puck control before eventually feeding Kurtis Foster would blast another rocket that Mark Parrish would deflect by Garon to give Minnesota a commanding 4-0 lead. The Oilers would respond on their own man advantage when Ales Hemsky’s blast from the point would carom off the boards back towards the front of the net where former Duck Dustin Penner lifted a shot before Niklas Backstrom could recover cutting the Wild’s lead to 4-1. The Wild seemed to get the message about what can happen when you let up and for the rest of the period Minnesota would sustain an amazing forecheck, and generating lots of shots on Mathieu Garon. The pressure was typified by the tremendous forechecking shift of the team’s 3rd line of Stephane Veilleux, Branko Radivojevic and Mikko Koivu and their hard work along the boards turned into a blast from the point by Kim Johnsson that Garon saved but his rebound would be backhanded in by Veilleux to put the Wild up 5-1. As the good feelings from Veilleux’s goal were still there, a defensive breakdown saw the Oilers’ Shawn Horcoff getting behind the Minnesota defense and he beat Backstrom 5-hole with a sneaky backhand to cut the lead to 5-2. The goal seemed to open up the game a bit, and it was a pace that seemed to suit the Oilers better than it did the Wild. With Horcoff’s goal the Wild tried to slow the pace of the game back down, as it didn’t want to sit and trade end-to-end chances with Edmonton and the State of Hockey would have a comfortable 3-goal lead going into the 3rd.
In the 3rd period Minnesota seemed to want to play a patient game, where they kept their shifts short and tried their best to limit chances on Niklas Backstrom. An early power play on a fairly weak hooking call on Stephane Veilleux gave the Oilers a little bit of life, but Backstrom and the Wild’s penalty kill did a good job at shutting down Edmonton. About halfway through the 3rd, former Bloomington Jefferson star Tom Gilbert led a rush up the ice and his backhand attempt would glance off the pads to a trailing Shawn Horcoff who thought he had his 2nd goal but Backstrom reached down with the glove and robbed the Oilers’ forward to preserve a 3-goal lead. Minnesota would try to give some of its less experienced players some ice time, like Matt Foy a chance to work on the forecheck and frustrate Edmonton from trying to mount a late comeback. The Wild would cruise to a 5-2 victory, and a much needed 6-day hiatus.
Niklas Backstrom had 22 saves in the victory, and even though he was seldom tested he still came up with some quality saves in the 3rd period to keep the Oilers from feeling they were back in the game. The other big story was the 4 power play goals, three of them coming in the 1st period alone to really put Edmonton in a big hole early. Yet, it was also a testament to the Wild’s hard work and keeping their feet moving in order to draw those penalties, with 10 of them tonight.
Mikko Koivu continues to be the Wild’s most complete player and he was rewarded with 3 assists on the power play this evening. Petteri Nummelin also impressed playing on the wing, and with Sean Hill’s possible insertion into the lineup after he finishes serving the last four games of his suspension could we see more of the diminutive Finn on the wing? Some Wild fans have been calling for this move since last season, and for its first try it worked reasonably well. No matter what, the days off will be very welcome in the State of Hockey team that needs two key player to return healthy if it wishes to do well when it resumes play against Colorado Sunday.
Wild Notes:
~ Wild lineup tonight was as follows: Brian Rolston, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Mark Parrish, Mikko Koivu, Eric Belanger, Branko Radivojevic, Stephane Veilleux, Matt Foy, Derek Booogaard, James Sheppard, Benoit Pouliot, Kim Johnsson, Nick Schultz, Martin Skoula, Brent Burns, Keith Carney, Petteri Nummelin, Josh Harding backed up Niklas Backstrom. Pavol Demitra, Marian Gaborik, Dominic Moore, and Wes Walz were the scratches.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game as selected by Let’s Play Hockey were: 1st Star Mark Parrish, 2nd Star Mikko Koivu, and 3rd Star Kurtis Foster
~ The Sean Hill countdown sits at 4 games left in his 20-game NHL suspension for the use of performance enhancing drugs.
This entry was posted on Monday, November 5th, 2007 at 10:10 pm and is filed under 2007-08 Game Reports & Previews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Source: Four power play goals allow Wild to cruise to 5-2 victory over Oilers
