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Many people questioned New York Islanders owner, Charles Wang’s sanity when he took the team’s backup goaltender, Garth Snow and made him the team’s General Manager finally replacing Mike Milbury. While that move seemed strange, the move just prior to that was even more unusual when Wang signed starting goaltender, Rick DiPietro to a 15-year deal, and made Ted Nolan head coach. While the sense of DiPietro’s contract has been debated, Nolan has been rather effective as the bench boss of the Islanders. This season, the scoring has been hard to come by and the Islanders are sitting at the bottom of a very tough Atlantic division. Meanwhile back in the State of Hockey, the team has weathered two very tough home losses. The first a late game collapse that saw the team lose to Detroit, and then a 1-0 loss at the hands of the Dallas Stars. The Wild should be a bit “angry” tonight, so will they use that to earn a victory over the struggling Islanders tonight?
From the drop of the puck, the game had a furious pace. Both teams were skating with lots of intensity, and the game would have the Wild and Islanders trading rushes up ice. Minnesota seemed to want to get on the scoreboard early, as they were swarming in the Islanders’ zone. The Wild were content to set up Kurtis Foster who was launching slappers from the point but few of the big blasts actually ended up reaching the Islanders’ Rick DiPietro. Minnesota’s pressure would yield an Islanders’ penalty when Blake Comeau earned a double-minor for high sticking that cost Mark Parrish a tooth. Parrish calmly bent down and picked up his loose chicklet and skated to the bench shaking his head, before showing off his new ’smile’ to his teammates. The Wild were very patient on the man-advantage, perhaps too patient as the team did not exhibit good, quick puck movement which allowed the Islanders penalty killers to get into the shooting lanes. Making matters worse the Wild would lose their power play when Marian Gaborik hooked an Islanders defender. The Islanders would get a good cycling shift from its line of Ruslan Fedotenko, Trent Hunter and Josef Vasicek. This line of big forwards were able to operate down low and created some space that gave Trent Hunter the chance to rip a wrister that narrowly missed the Wild’s net. Minnesota would respond with a good cycling shift of its own, from Branko Radivojevic, Stephane Veilleux, and Eric Belanger. The Wild would continue their pressure and Veilleux would slide a pass back to a waiting Kurtis Foster who would launch a one-timer that DiPietro clearly didn’t see until it was in the net to give Minnesota a 1-0 lead. After the goal, Minnesota would ease up and New York was able to create a little bit of pressure on Niklas Backstrom. The shots were even at six apiece but Minnesota was creating more high quality offensive pressure going into the 2nd period.
In the 2nd period, it did not take very long for the Islanders to tie the game, as former Michigan Wolverine star Mike Comrie would work a 2-on-1 where he was able to deliver a perfect saucer pass to Bill Guerin who buried the chance knotting the game 1-1. The Islanders goal seemed to be the wake up call the team needed to start skating again. The Wild started skating well again but at times they would try too many passes; with a classic example being Kurtis Foster leading a 3-on-1 rush only to try an ill-advised drop pass to no one. The Isles big line of Hunter, Fedotenko and Vasicek would again start working the puck down low and create a variety of close chances that were coming uncomfortably near to giving New York the lead. The State of Hockey would struggle to find away to create offense, and so it would be their energy line that would create it. Some good work down low by Mark Parrish would allow him to find Foster with a pass who quickly pushed it up to James Sheppard. Sheppard, working near the dasher and he’d skate just underneath the right faceoff circle looking to pass but no one was open so he flung a wrister that somehow found it through a mass of bodies and into the net to give the Wild a 2-1 lead (Rolston would later get credit for that goal). With the 18,568 in attendance roaring, a great outlet pass allowed Brian Rolston to get behind the defense and he would race in on a breakaway. Rolston would try to beat DiPietro on a wrister that he would block deflecting the puck high into the air but Islanders defenseman Radek Martinek would close his hand over the puck drawing a delay of game penalty. On the power play, Minnesota tried to work the puck back to Foster but overall they were unable to generate much pressure with the man advantage. The Islanders, meanwhile did their best to outwork the Wild. Sean Bergenheim and Miroslav Satan would create great forechecking pressure, even generating a few shots on goal and Minnesota had to feel it lost a little of the momentum created by the Sheppard goal, giving them a 2-1 lead going into the 3rd period.
In an eerie parallel to the previous period the New York Islanders would waste little time to tie the game. Mike Comrie would skate into the Wild zone and work feint at a short-side chance and then move behind the net before working the puck to the front of the net where Bill Guerin was there to fire the puck that Nick Schultz stopped but Andy Hilbert was able to chop it over the spwraling Backstrom to tie the game, 2-2. The goal came just 27 seconds into the period. The Wild would try to counter attack as Marian Gaborik tried to beat DiPietro with a wrister he fired from the high slot that the Islanders goaltender would deflect to the wall. The game would see the two teams trading rushes with one another. The Wild would try pinch a bit with its defense and this would allow the team to sustain offensive pressure, but it would also make the team rather vulnerable to the stretch pass. One such instance was a nice pass that found Jeff Tambellini all alone for a breakaway. Tambellini would move in and give a deke as he tried to finish by lifting a backhander but the sprawling Backstrom lifted his leg ever so slightly and came up with the huge save. The game seemed to crank up in terms of physicality, as Todd Fedoruk would deliver a big hit at Trent Hunter’s expense, Hunter would try to return the favor but just bounced of the ‘Fridge.’ A fairly marginal slashing call on Sean Hill would give the Islanders a power play, but Minnesota’s penalty killers again stood tall to preserve the tie. Minnesota would try to renew the attack, and Marian Gaborik would give a great cross-ice feed to Pavol Demitra who’d fire a shot that DiPietro would stop and Demitra would then give a no-look backhanded pass to Sheppard who fired a shot that hit the right post and out and the Islanders goaltender would cover. The Islanders would counter attack with a great forechecking shift with its power line but Backstrom would be up to the task, yet the shift gave them some momentum. After an initial rush by the Wild the Islanders would counter attack and former Wild defenseman Andy Sutton would give a pass to a racing Sean Bergenheim and his initial chance appeared to be stymied but Bergenheim would lift a shot off the crossbar and in to give New York a 3-2 lead. Minnesota would respond as Pierre-Marc Bouchard would forward a pass to Mikko Koivu who would wind up and blast a shot on DiPietro that he’d stop but he’d give up a big rebound that Brian Rolston would pounce on to shovel the puck in a virtually empty net to tie the game, 3-3. The closing minutes were frantic as both teams did not want to go to overtime; yet just under 2 minutes left a terrible hooking call on Mikko Koivu would give the Islanders a late power play. Once again, Minnesota’s penalty killers did a good job of pressuring the puck carrier sending the game to overtime.
In overtime, the Wild were able to kill off the closing seconds of the power play and Minnesota seemed to be the team that wanted to earn the win more. Minnesota started out fairly patient, but with its most potent forward tandem of Marian Gaborik and Pavol Demitra it was not a big shock to see them create some chances. A great 2-on-2 rush had Marian Gaborik nearly splitting the defense but he could not get a pass to his fellow Slovak. Yet, they would not be denied as Marian Gaborik would lull the Islanders defense to sleep before going full-throttle to put a puck near the crease that Brent Burns was able to bury the loose puck to give Minnesota a huge 4-3 win.
Niklas Backstrom had a fairly decent game, making 26 saves including some real clutch ones in the 3rd period to give the Wild a chance to tie the game. The save on Tambellini was incredible, and quite literally a game saver for the Wild. Minnesota should take a lesson from its last two goals; both coming off of rebounds. Too often the team was working for the perfect shot when it needed to fire pucks on DiPietro and work for rebound chances. Rookie James Sheppard had a strong game, and by all rights the Wild goal in the 2nd period really should’ve been his as he continues to show why the team drafted him 9th Overall in 2006.
The two points were huge for the Wild and it will keep Minnesota atop the Northwest Division standings. Hopefully the Wild can enjoy the good feelings, but then refocus for what is shaping up to be a big game against the St. Louis Blues tomorrow night. The Blues are a team on the outside looking in, and they’ll want nothing more than try to gain some ground by beating Minnesota so the Wild cannot afford to overlook former Minnesota North Stars Assistant Coach Andy Murray’s squad.
Wild Notes:
~ Wild roster tonight was as follows: Marian Gaborik, Pavol Demitra, Brian Rolston, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Mark Parrish, Eric Belanger, Mikko Koivu, Branko Radivojevic, Stephane Veilleux, Todd Fedoruk, James Sheppard, Aaron Voros, Kim Johnsson, Brent Burns, Sean Hill, Nick Schultz, Kurtis Foster, Martin Skoula and Josh Harding backed up Niklas Backstrom. Healthy scratches were Matt Foy, Keith Carney and Petteri Nummelin. Derek Boogaard i out of the lineup with injuries.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game as selected by “Let’s Play Hockey” were: 1st Star Brian Rolston, 2nd Star Kurtis Foster, 3rd Star James Sheppard
~ Brent Burns became the 3rd defenseman in Wild history to score at least 10 goals in a season joining Kurtis Foster (2005-06) and Lubomir Sekeras (2000-01). Burns also joins the double digit goal scoring club this season, joining Marian Gaborik (28), Brian Rolston (22), Mark Parrish (13), Eric Belanger (12), Pierre-Marc Bouchard (11), and Pavol Demitra (11).
~ The Girls High School Hockey teams are in the midst of Sectional play, and the Eden Prairie Eagles trounced Bloomington Jefferson, 6-2 in a game last night in Eden Prairie. The Eagan Wildcats, led partially by U.S. Olympian Natalie Darwitz (and Eagan High School alum) managed to hold on to defeat rival Burnsville Blaze 2-1.
This entry was posted on Saturday, February 9th, 2008 at 7:58 pm and is filed under 2007-08 Game Reports & Previews, Minnesota Hockey News. 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: Hockey Day in Minnesota: Wild win 4-3 overtime thriller over Islanders