| |
“Every game is important,” you might want to get used to this cliche because you’re going to hear it a lot around the league when players are interviewed before, during and after games. Cliche’s are nice because not only are they vague; they generally apply when given. For the Minnesota Wild, every game is indeed important and in games against teams you are supposed to beat earning two points is a given and failing to do so is a missed opportunity. This is the situation the Wild face as the travel up to Edmonton to take on the 5th place Oilers. The Oilers just got hit with terrible news when their premier free agent signing, Sheldon Souray is lost for the season to shoulder surgery. For Wild fans, its not a time for our team to show sympathy, and instead take care of business and earn the two points. Will Minnesota add to Edmonton’s pain tonight?
In the first period the Wild were flying all over the ice, they had speed and energy. Minnesota was anticipating the play well and winning many of the battles along the boards; and using this level of puck possession to pepper Mathieu Garon with shots. The Wild were controlling the pace of the play; and the Oilers were racing to keep up. The State of Hockey would earn a power play when Steve Staios earned a tripping call. On the man advantage, the Oilers would demonstrate why they have one of the best penalty kill units. The Minnesota power play would be neutralized rather effectively by the pressuring the puck carrier not allowing the Wild much space to operate and would earn the kill without much difficulty. After the power play the Oilers would follow up their kill with some good forechecking shifts but were unable to really create high quality scoring chances on Niklas Backstrom. Minnesota was doing well with a two-man forecheck that created many turnovers, and this led to some nice chances as Minnesota seemed to want to saturate Garon with shots on goal. Edmonton would try to relieve pressure by mounting a rush of their own, and would come dangerously close as Kyle Brodziak’s wide angle shot would somehow trickle past Backstrom and harmlessly through the crease. The Wild would continue firing shots, particularly from Kurtis Foster who was launching rockets from the point. However, as dominant as the Wild were they would receive a cruel break. Edmonton would have a late rush on a seemingly mundane slapper by Fernando Pisani the puck would appear to surprise Backstrom and into the net; and all the Finnish goaltender could do was stare at Wild defenseman Martin Skoula who he believed incidentally tipped the puck. The replays I saw did not seem to indicate any significant change of direction in the puck from it striking Skoula’s stick and Minnesota would go into the 2nd trailing 1-0, despite outshooting the Oilers 10 to 7.
In the 2nd period, Minnesota would press even harder than they did in the first. The Wild would put on a clinic in puck possession, using its speed and short passes to create space. Minnesota spent a lot of time firing shots from the point with the benefit of a screening forward, either Todd Fedoruk, or Mark Parrish. Parrish, in particular seem to have a target on his back as the Oilers seemed to be trying their best to hit him every chance they got. The Wild would inundate Mathieu Garon with a wide variety of shots, and even the Wild’s power play was working very well with great puck movement to fire a large number of shots on goal, but the Edmonton netminder was up to the task. Minnesota would finally solve Garon when the 1st line of Marian Gaborik, Pavol Demitra and Todd Fedoruk would yield the benefit of a rocket slapper fired by Kurtis Foster, that created a rebound that Demitra would shovel into the net to tie the game 1-1. About 2 minutes after Demitra’s goal, an Edmonton rush forced Wild defenseman Keith Carney to take a penalty to relieve the pressure on goaltender. The Oilers would make the Wild pay, as Jarret Stoll would skate towards the middle of the ice just inside the Minnesota’s blueline before flinging a wrister that took full advantage of a screening Dustin Penner to go just inside the left post on a shot that Backstrom did not see. The Wild tried to rally back on a power play of its own by using good high-to-low passes to open up shooting lanes but despite screens the Wild could not seem to get their sticks on the puck to deflect it past Garon. After the power play, the Wild would go back to a two-man forecheck to create turnovers, and this dominance was clearly demonstrated by the shot count of Minnesota outshooting the Oilers 21 to 1; yet it was the Oilers that had the 2-1 lead. The Oilers would try to counter attack themselves and they came very close when a great pass by Ales Hemsky was almost banged in by Stoll who did the splits to make the big save. Minnesota would have one last dangerous shift, where James Sheppard would showcase some of his great vision and passing ability as he worked the cycle with Brian Rolston and Pierre-Marc Bouchard. Bouchard would rip a shot on Garon that was just off the mark and Sheppard almost managed to chip a rebound but the horn would go off with the Wild still trailing by a goal, 2-1.
Wild Head Coach Jacques Lemaire thought perhaps his team needed a change, so he switched goaltenders by having Niklas Backstrom sit in favor of Josh Harding. Minnesota did not seem get the message as Edmonton would light the lamp just over two minutes into the 3rd; as Kyle Brodziak would get free near the crease and redirect a centering pass by Curtis Glencross that Harding managed to save and then get his own rebound to chip a puck in to put the Oilers up 3-1. After Brodziak’s goal the Oilers were content to sit back in their 1-2-2 trap and allow the Wild to make mistakes much the same way Minnesota had done for much of its seven NHL seasons. They would get that mistake when Brodziak would get a big turnover and skate into the Wild’s zone before unleashing a blast that beat Harding putting the Oilers up 4-1. A scary moment would occur when Marian Gaborik collided with Ethan Moreau and as Gaborik fell to the ice his skate would fly up and hit Moreau near the area of the eye causing a nasty cut. The incident seemed to be dangerously close to the one that Florida’s Richard Zednik faced when a skate caught him in the neck; but Moreau would come back after receiving a bandage for the wound that continued to bleed rather profusely. The physicality would increase in the 3rd as Brent Burns would put a big hit on Marty Reasoner, but the Oilers would pay the Wild back with some big hits of their own, mostly by Curtis Glencross and their goon Zach Stortini who took full advantage of Derek Boogaard not being in the lineup. Minnesota would try to create offense, only to find it stymied by penalties, but it would get some prime chances as well. Perhaps one of their best was a stretch pass to Mark Parrish who raced in on a breakaway but Garon came up with the huge save. The Wild would earn a late power play when Marty Reasoner tripped up Pierre-Marc Bouchard. Again on the man-advantage the Wild would again work the blasts from the point with the hope of taking advantage of screens. A big blast by Rolston would create a big rebound that Todd Fedoruk narrowly missed from chopping towards the net, but Minnesota’s persistence would pay off. A little tic-tac-toe play would go unrewarded but a nice hold of the zone by Sean Hill would have the veteran defensemen sliding a pass over to Rolston who labeled a slapper that found the back of the net to cut the Oilers’ lead to 4-2. The Wild would try a desperate attempt to continue to cut further into the Edmonton lead, as the Wild would pull Josh Harding with just under two minutes left. Minnesota would continue to blast shots yet even after a flurry of shots the Wild would lose, 4-2 to the Oilers.
The game was a terrible disappointment in more ways than one. It was a loss to an inferior opponent, and despite racking up 40 shots on goal (including 21 shots in the 2nd period alone) the Wild managed just 2 goals. The Wild were creating many decent chances (albeit a large portion of them coming from the perimeter), but just could not get the 2nd chance rebounds as Mathieu Garon had a marvelous game. Kyle Brodziak delivered the two daggers in the 3rd, but it really was Garon keeping the Oilers’ afloat with a tremendous performance, especially during the 2nd period.
On the flipside for the Wild, neither Niklas Backstrom or Josh Harding were good enough for Minnesota to earn a victory tonight; with Backstrom giving up 2 goals on 11 shots, and Harding 2 goals on 12 shots respectively. Backstrom appeared to have trouble seeing the puck, and while a screen can be the culprit in the 2nd Oiler goal he did appear to be struggling to track the shots. Harding was rather shaky to start the 3rd and the quick goals killed any chance the Wild had of coming back in this game.
It was a tough loss for Minnesota to take, as they lost an opportunity to gain another 2 points in the standings, and while the Wild are still going to stay atop the division the defeat is still a bitter pill to swallow. It doesn’t get any easier for Minnesota as they travel to Vancouver to take on the Canucks who are hungry at the chance to climb up the division rankings. Hopefully they can get over this loss and be focused for a real battle on Thursday.
Wild Notes:
~ Wild roster tonight is as follows: Marian Gaborik, Pavol Demitra, Brian Rolston, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Eric Belanger, Mikko Koivu, Mark Parrish, Aaron Voros, Todd Fedoruk, Branko Radivojevic, Stephane Veilleux, James Sheppard, Brent Burns, Keith Carney, Sean Hill, Kurtis Foster, Nick Schultz, Martin Skoula, and Josh Harding manned the net along with Niklas Backstrom. Kim Johnsson, Petteri Nummelin, and Matt Foy were the healthy scratches. Derek Boogaard is still out of the lineup with an injury.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star Mathieu Garon, 2nd Star Kyle Brodziak, 3rd Star Curtis Glencross
This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 12th, 2008 at 10:52 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: Garon is the difference maker in tough 4-2 road loss to Oilers
