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It is not often the Minnesota Wild are visited by the New York Rangers. In fact the last time the team had a visit from the Rangers, it was before the lockout. At that point in time the Wild were an overachieving team with a minimal payroll and was minimal on talent, while the Rangers were an underachieving team with a huge payroll. How times have changed, an above average payroll and above average talent while the Rangers again have an expensive roster (although just marginally more expensive than the Wild’s) but are again underachieving. A team that boasts high octane offensive weapons like Jaromir Jagr, Chris Drury, Brendan Shanahan, Scott Gomez and Martin Straka currently are one of the league’s lowest scoring teams. The Wild are a team that seems to be finding more offense, and hopefully the Minnesota Wild can use that improving offense to sustain that level of frustration for the Rangers tonight.
Minnesota had great jump in its skates from the drop of the puck. The Rangers seemed to be a bit surprised by the Wild’s tremendous quickness. Minnesota’s top line of Marian Gaborik, Pavol Demitra, and Aaron Voros would try to get a quick goal by charging the net, but Henrik Lundqvist would stop the first few shots and with the net rather open Rangers defenseman Dan Girardi made a big save with his skate. Yet, it was obvious the Rangers game plan was to constantly shadow Marian Gaborik, as they did a good job at denying the speedy Slovak the space he needs to reach top gear. The Rangers at times would demonstrate tremendous puck control, moving the puck causing Wild defenders to chase them around their zone. On the power play former Portland Winterhawk Brandon Dubinsky would take a short pass from Jaromir Jagr and fire it across to Michal Rozsival who would wind up and fire a slapper from the point that would inadvertently deflect off of Kim Johnsson and by Josh Harding to put the Rangers up 1-0. The Rangers were able to get some more shots, including a nice power move by Dubinsky but Harding was able to keep the puck out of the Wild net. Minnesota would keep trying, and its persistence would pay off as the first line would establish a good forecheck, forcing Jaromir Jagr to make an ill-advised pass that Aaron Voros would steal and give a beautiful between the legs pass to Demitra who would skate towards the Rangers net before making a laser-like cross-ice pass to a crashing Marian Gaborik who buried the biscuit to tie the game, 1-1. The goal would give the Wild some much needed momentum and add a level of frustration to New York who left the ice outshooting Minnesota 10 to 2.
Minnesota seemed to have an extra gear to start the 2nd period as it was able to get some early pressure on the Rangers, and was able to draw some penalties. The Wild would make the Rangers pay for the penalty, as Pavol Demitra would work the puck down low and feed it out toward the top of the crease where Marian Gaborik would fire a shot that Lundqvist stopped but Gaborik would wack in the rebound to give Minnesota a 2-1 lead. With the sellout crowd roaring, Brent Burns would give the hometown fans something more to cheer about. Burns would deliver a bone-rattling check on Petr Prucha that left the Czech forward a bit worse for the wear, and Fedor Tyutin would skate over to confront Burns only to receive a good forearm shiver from the Wild defenseman that dropped him to the ice. The hit was clean, but the Rangers were not happy and they would earn a bench minor and once again the Wild would make New York pay for getting put into the penalty box. Some good puck movement, would see Brent Burns pass the puck to Gaborik who would skate toward the net before lifting a backhand over Lundqvist for the natural hat-trick and give Minnesota a commanding 3-1 lead. On the very next shift, it was clear Jaromir Jagr and the Rangers were going to press hard to cut the Wild lead in half. Jagr would race the puck into the Wild zone and then skate behind the net and fire a shot on Harding that he kicked away but Jagr would take the rebound and thread a wicked cross-ice pass to Martin Straka who buried the puck into the back of the Wild net to decrease the Minnesota lead to 3-2. Minnesota seemed eager to respond to the Rangers goal as Aaron Voros would make a nice power move toward the net but his shot would miss the mark as it went up into the netting behind Lundqvist. Minnesota’s penalty kill would do an excellent job of getting a big kill and as the penalty was over Chris Drury, who took a hit by Kim Johnsson decided to tell referee Denis LaRue what he thought of him and he would earn a unsportsmanlike penalty. Minnesota would make the Rangers pay as they would work the puck well around the perimeter before Pierre-Marc Bouchard would tee up a shot from the point that managed to sneak through Lundqvist’s pads and in, off a nice screen by Mark Parrish to put the Wild up 4-2. Aaron Voros seemed to be all over the ice and he would also get involved physically, as he would deliver a good check on Prucha that Jason Strudwick would disagree with and he would drop the gloves against the Wild forward. It was not much of a fight as tried to simply protect himself from getting punched in his still broken nose. Voros would try a few jabs but it was clear he really did not want to get into a big swinging contest with Strudwick and both would agree to stop the melee. The State of Hockey again had a period where it really did not pummel Henrik Lundqvist with shots but it was very opportunistic tallying 3 power play goals and lighting the lamp 4 times on just 11 shots total.
In the 3rd period, the Wild and especially Marian Gaborik seemed to take it to a whole other level. Initially the Wild seemed content to just keep its shifts short and just hold onto its 2-goal lead. The Rangers were making some attempts to try to work the puck deep, but the Wild’s defense did a fair job at frustrating the Rangers with good play through the neutral zone. However, a bizarre play seemed to give New York some life, when Martin Skoula who really was uncontested just skated out from behind the Wild net and simply fell down where Nigel Dawes skated in and fired a quick shot on Harding that managed to find a way to squeeze through his pads and in cutting the Minnesota lead to 4-3. Minnesota would not waste much time responding back, just about 40 seconds, when a nice point shot by Nick Schultz would be stopped by Lundqvist and Marian Gaborik would tap the puck out of the air and in for his fourth of the game putting the Wild back up by two, 5-3. With the Xcel Energy Centre roaring, on a 4-on-4, Marian Gaborik would block a pass and race off on a breakaway and he made no mistake as he beat Lundqvist for a 5th time on a nice wrister stick side. A very angry (over the officiating) Rangers Head Coach Tom Renney decided to pull Lundqvist in favor of Stephen Valiquette. The breakaway tally created a frenzy-like aire, as it left the Wild with almost a half of period left in the game. Minnesota would try to help Gaborik get a 6th goal which would put him in elite company, with Darryl Sittler and Red Berenson as the two modern day players to have scored 6-goals in a game. Everytime Gaborik would get the puck in the final minutes the crowd noise would climax with many fans yelling “Shooooot” and the Slovak sniper would have two prime chances. The first came off a dramatic rush where Gaborik used his speed to fly past the Rangers defense to get a nice wrister that Valiquette was able to deflect away with his glove, and the 2nd and perhaps better of the two chances was on a 5-on-3 when Brent Burns would give an awesome diagonal pass to Gaborik who ripped a shot that Valiquette made a great save going post-to-post. The Wild fans would give the hometown team a nice long standing ovation as the State of Hockey would skate to a 6-3 win.
Perhaps lost in Gaborik’s tremendous performance was another excellent start from Josh Harding. Harding would get his 4th victory in a row, making 32 saves. Early on, his saves were key in keeping the Wild in the game and it is impossible to deny the sense of stability he has brought to the team. It will be very interesting to see if he’ll get the nod against Detroit on Saturday.
Marian Gaborik had the best night in Wild history; with a 6-point night, topped off with 5 goals which was the first 5-goal game in the NHL since Sergei Fedorov did it for the Detroit Red Wings back in 1996. Gaborik was a force all over, using his speed very well leading the Wild in shots with 7. It was Gaborik’s 9th hat-trick of his career and his first game where he tallied more than 3 times in a game. Ironically, despite scoring 5 goals, Gaborik will not be credited with the game-winner as it was Pierre-Marc Bouchard who had 4th goal for the State of Hockey. Minnesota got great shifts from the fill-in wingers on the 1st line working with stalwarts Gaborik and Demitra; both Voros and Parrish were effective and demonstrated good chemistry.
The Wild will need all of the chemistry it can muster Saturday in a game against perhaps the best team in the league, in the Detroit Red Wings. The Red Wings rocked the Wild the last time these two teams met earlier in the month. While the Wild have lots to be happy about, especially after a performance like tonight, it must realize it will be facing a very determined opponent that is coming off a 3-2 loss at the hands of the St. Louis Blues. It will need an all out 60-minute effort if it expects to beat Detroit, let’s hope they can follow up tonight’s spectacular effort with one Saturday as they will be working for their 5th straight win.
Wild Notes:
~ The Wild’s lineup tonight is as follows: Marian Gaborik, Pavol Demitra, Brian Rolston, Eric Belanger, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Mark Parrish, Dominic Moore, Branko Radivojevic, Stephane Veilleux, Aaron Voros, James Sheppard, Matt Foy, Brent Burns, Kim Johnsson, Martin Skoula, Sean Hill, Keith Carney, and Niklas Backstrom backed up Josh Harding. Kurtis Foster and Todd Fedoruk were the healthy scratches. Mikko Koivu, Derek Boogaard and Petteri Nummelin are out with injuries.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game as selected by Let’s Play Hockey are: 1st Star Marian Gaborik, 2nd Star Pavol Demitra, 3rd Star Brent Burns
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 10:27 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: Gaborik’s five goals dominate the visiting New York Rangers, 6-3
