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There is little that can make us feel similar to professional athletes, but when a host of Wild players came down with the flu these players seem much more ‘human’ than they did before. For a Wild team that has battled with inconsistency, the arrival of the flu has only given the Wild fans more reason to be apathetic about tonight’s game between the State of Hockey and the much-hated Anaheim Ducks. It was the original ‘Spanish Flu’ in 1919 that was the only year (prior to the lockout season of 2004-05) where a Stanley Cup was not awarded. Word was quickly passed that the Wild were going to be without veteran goaltender Niklas Backstrom due to this latest outbreak. The Ducks, just prior to the game made a big splash with a trade by sending young centreman Andy McDonald to the St. Louis Blues for veteran centre Doug Weight. Would the Wild be able to battle past the flu and the team’s own inconsistency to pull out a big win in Anaheim tonight?
From the drop of the puck, the Wild seemed to have an energy level Wild fans haven’t seen in a while. Anaheim seemed a bit lethargic, and simply hoping to keep up with the speedy Wild squad. Despite the high tempo game both teams were playing, scoring chances were few and far between. When the Ducks would be able to create scoring chances, Minnesota’s Josh Harding was up to the task. Minnesota was not just skating with speed, they were working hard to win battles for loose pucks along the boards. The Wild were creating chances of their own, with a nice chance by Brian Rolston. This great effort almost had Wild fans thinking to themselves, “is this the same team?” The Ducks would get a great chance, when former Vancouver Canuck Todd Bertuzzi would use a good power move to generate a close in chance on Harding that the Regina, Saskatchewan native would deflect away. As sudden as Bertuzzi’s attempt was thwarted, the Wild’s Aaron Voros would add to the growing folklore growing about him amongst Wild fans when he would race in on Jean-Sebastien Giguere and beat the Ducks goaltender to put Minnesota up 1-0. This unassisted effort was critical in building some confidence for a team that has little to feel good about (both literally and figuratively) lately. A shocked Honda Centre crowd seemed rather deflated by the Wild’s excellent play in the 1st period, carrying a 1-goal lead going into the 2nd.
Anaheim would try to get the equalizer early in the 2nd, pressuring the Wild with strong physical play along the boards. An penalty to Kim Johnsson seemed to give the Ducks an opportunity to get the tying goal. The Ducks were setting up their point men, especially Mathieu Schneider with big blasts that Harding was able to keep out of the Wild net. The big early penalty kill only added to the Wild’s feeling of confidence. Minnesota’s good luck was followed up by more bad luck for the Ducks, when Chris Kunitz was given a double minor for high sticking, when he caused a cut on Wild captain Mark Parrish. Kunitz’s penalty would prove to be very costly to the Anaheim Ducks. Some great puck movement by the Wild, would have Brian Rolston give a nice pass to Marian Gaborik and he fired a shot by Giguere to put the Wild up 2-0, and better yet the team still had another 2:00 of power play time to work with. Still on the power play, the Wild would strike again; this time off the rush when Kim Johnsson would pass he puck up to Eric Belanger who beat Giguere with a wicked wrister to give Minnesota a 3-0 lead. Anaheim Ducks Head Coach Randy Carlyle had seen enough and pulled Giguere in favor of Swiss rookie Jonas Hillier. With Anaheim Ducks fans boo’ing its teams lackluster performance, the Ducks tried to respond with a quick goal, as Ryan Getzlaf’s chance was denied by Harding. While, the Ducks would have a bit more intensity it would not last and the Wild would again take full advantage of it. The Ducks frustration would yield another power play as mustached goon George Parros would take a tripping penalty as he would haul down Dominic Moore. The power play would become a 5-on-3 when former Wild Sean O’Donnell earned a minor for cross checking. Minnesota would again make the Ducks pay on the power play, when Brian Rolston would rocked a blast from the point that found the twine behind Hillier to give the Wild a commanding 4-0 lead. With power play time still left, the Wild would break through a forechecking attempt by the Ducks, and Aaron Voros would work a 2-on-1 with Brent Burns. Voros would pass the puck to Burns off the rush and the defenseman would bury the chance for the team’s 4th power play of the night, 5-0 Wild. Minnesota had complete control going into the 3rd, and it would be interesting to see if the Ducks would try to thug up the game.
The 3rd period would see both teams slow the pace of the game down considerably. The Wild seemed content to sit on its lead, and play a passive game while keeping its players’ shifts short. Yet, as the Wild eased up the Ducks would go on the attack and add some late (yet inconsequential goals). The first Ducks goal, came off the stick of Anaheim tough guy Brad May on a nice shot that went up and over the shoulder of Josh Harding. Despite the Anaheim tally, the Wild would remain passive. This would allow the Ducks to light the lamp one more time; this one off the power play when Todd Bertuzzi would get in close and lift a shot over Harding to cut the Wild lead to 5-2 and that would be the final score.
Josh Harding was brilliant, making 28 saves in a huge road victory for the State of Hockey. Harding came up with the big saves when the team needed and provided the team some stability that the rest of the team would feed off of. The Wild rediscovered the work ethic that served it so well last season. The team gave at least a 40 minute effort, and while in this game that was all that was required to beat the Ducks it still needs to try to play a strong 60-minute game. The resurgence of the Wild power play was also nice to see, and the power play had much more variety than in previous games. Hopefully the Wild can play at a similar level tomorrow night against the Los Angeles Kings.
Wild Notes:
~ The Wild roster tonight was as follows: Marian Gaborik, Pavol Demitra, Brian Rolston, Mark Parrish, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Todd Fedoruk, Aaron Voros, Eric Belanger, Dominic Moore, Derek Boogaard, Stephane Veilleux, James Sheppard, Kim Johnsson, Sean Hill, Nick Schultz, Martin Skoula, Brent Burns, Keith Carney, and Niklas Backstrom backed up Josh Harding. Matt Foy, Branko Radivojevic, and Kurtis Foster were the healthy scratches. Mikko Koivu, Petteri Nummelin were out of the lineup with injuries.
~ The Wild 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star Josh Harding, 2nd Star Brian Rolston, 3rd Star Travis Moen
This entry was posted on Saturday, December 15th, 2007 at 12:19 am 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 the Wild to shoot down the Ducks, 5-2
