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Candy, flowers, Valentine’s Day cards; these are all things the Minnesota Wild will likely not be exchanging any of these things with the members of the Vancouver Canucks tonight. The more likely exchange will include some trash talk, some vicious body checks and perhaps even a few cheap shots. It is a very important game for both of these teams as they try to battle for a playoff spot. Currently, Minnesota is sitting in the optimal seat that is 1st place in the division while the Canucks are sitting in 4th. Yet, only 5 points separates the two teams. Fans can expect a game that has a playoff-type atmosphere; can the Wild pull off a victory in what will surely be a hostile environment?
It was a tentative start for both teams as Vancouver settled into its 1-2-2 trap to start the game. In the early stages of the 1st period, it was the Canucks dominating puck possession as their top line of Daniel Sedin, Henrik Sedin, and Markus Naslund put on a clinic of cycling the puck.  Despite all of the puck possession in the Wild zone it only yielded in a single shot on goal that Niklas Backstrom was able to deflect out of the zone allowing Minnesota to get a much-needed line change. The game also demonstrated some physicality as well when Vancouver’s Matt Cooke gave a good check on Wild rookie James Sheppard that had the youngster a bit slow in getting up. It also would flare up with a fight as Nathan McIver would drop the gloves against Minnesota’s Aaron Voros. Both Voros and McIver would throw some right hands in what turned out to be a fairly long fight; Voros had an advantage in reach but McIver was able to get himself close which negated that advantage. It was a fairly even back and forth fight, but McIver gets the win as he landed the last few punches as an exhausted Voros tumbled to the ice. Both teams were working hard to finish their checks, and Minnesota was dishing out some of their own as Eric Belanger and Brent Burns delivered some nice hits. Just over 5 minutes left in the period, the Wild would get a 3-on-2 and the drop pass found Stephane Veilleux all alone in the slot and he feinted at a slapper which caused Roberto Luongo to skate out to challenge but Veilleux faked and then slid a nifty backhanded shot around the Canucks’ netminder to put Minnesota up 1-0.  The Canucks would try to strike back as young Vancouver defenseman would evade a charging Marian Gaborik, and then get off a great point shot that Niklas Backstrom was able to kick aside with a pad save. Vancovuer was not done there as some good work down low by former University of Minnesota-Duluth star Mason Raymond gave a quick pass to Trevor Linden waiting just beneath the right faceoff circle but Backstrom would stop his snap shot to preserve Minnesota’s one-goal lead. The Canucks would have an even better chance in the closing seconds when point shot, created a small flurry that culminated with Taylor Pyatt firing a puck off the post and out, which allowed Minnesota to take a 1-0 lead going into the 2nd period.
The 2nd period started very similar to the 1st as the Canucks would again showcase some great puck possession. Vancouver was able to cycle with impunity in the Wild zone, but Minnesota was doing a good job of keeping the Canucks near the boards and really only gave up shots from the point. The great pressure would just register one shot on goal. The Wild would have one good chance early when Stephane Veilleux would give a drop pass to Keith Carney who would make a nice move around a Canuck defender but his shot from the high slot would be deflected wide by Roberto Luongo. Minnesota would get a golden opportunity when Alexandre Burrows inexplicably ran into Backstrom with no Wild defenders around him to earn a goaltender interference call. Minnesota struggled to get the puck into the zone to set up their power play, but would almost add to their lead in the waning seconds of the man advantage when a shot from Mikko Koivu that was deflected by Pavol Demitra and it would hit the crossbar and deflect out. The power play seemed to give the Wild some confidence and they would follow up their good power play with a nice shift where it was Minnesota who demonstrated some excellent work cycling the puck. Some great work by Brian Rolston would free up Marian Gaborik who would evade the shadowing former Wild defenseman Willie Mitchell to drive the net and Luongo would stop the first shot but Gaborik would fan on the rebound chance. At times, hard work creates some luck and the Wild have been victimized by some unfortunate bounces and this time Minnesota would score on a flukey goal. Branko Radivojevic was chasing the puck as it slid towards the right corner and was just about parallel to the goal line when he flung a shot towards the crease and it would go off the shin pad of Vancouver’s Mattias Ohlund and off the cross bar, then off Luongo’s back and into the net to put the Wild up 2-0. The goal would later be given to Stephane Veilleux as the replay demonstrated he got his stick on the puck just as it deflected off the shin pad of Ohlund, it was his 2nd tally of the game. It certainly was not a pretty goal but the Wild were happy to take it; rather predictably almost less than a minute after Radivojevic’s goal Aaron Voros would earn a cross-checking penalty when he leveled Byron Ritchie who would get up a bit worse for the wear. The Canucks’ power play was killed off by some great defense where the Wild demonstrated their great skill at getting their sticks in the passing / shooting lanes to keep Vancouver to only a few perimeter shots. The Canucks would keep pressing just hoping to grind out a goal and they would receive a fortuitous bounce when Burrows would slide a shot that would deflect of the knee of Brad Isbister and the puck would bounce and somehow evade Niklas Backstrom to cut the Wild lead in half, 2-1. It was a soft goal and it got the sold out crowd at the “Garage” going. The game would get a bit more chippy when on a near 2-on-1 between Marian Gaborik and Brian Rolston, would have Gaborik unable to settle the puck on the not-so-great ice. Rolston would then finish a check on Willie Mitchell, and Alexandre Burrows did not like it and he would go after Rolston throwing punches right from the start. Rolston threw a few punches before wrestling the smaller Burrows to the ice; he would earn the instigator and a misconduct on top of the fighting major. Minnesota had to feel a bit happy it was carrying a 2-1 lead going into the 3rd, but it had to have felt the Canucks were able to take back some of the momentum with that late-period goal.
The Wild would receive a roughing call on Brent Burns at the end of the 2nd, forcing them to start the 3rd a man down. For most of the Canucks power play the Wild did a great job at keeping Vancouver out near boards and perimeter. With the penalty virtually expired the Canucks were able to work the puck down to Ryan Shannon who was just underneath the left faceoff dot, and he’d find a crashing Ryan Kesler who buried a shot high glove side over Backstrom to tie the game, 2-2. With the crowd back into the game, it was just 16 seconds later when Backstrom would give up another one, off a point shot by Alexander Edler that Backstrom appeared to have but it would bounce out of his glove and into the net giving the Canucks a 3-2 lead. Minnesota would try to get back in the game, when Stephane Veilleux would tee up a blast that Luongo managed to kick away. A minute later, Mikko Koivu would try to blast a shot at Luongo but it would deflect off a Canuck defender’s stick and hit Henrik Sedin in the side of the head sending him to the ice in pain. The trainer went out to see him but he wouldn’t miss the next shift. He was well enough to hook Koivu later to give Minnesota a power play. On the power play the Wild would move the puck well, and came very close when Brian Rolston’s point shot almost turned into a rebound opportunity for Gaborik but Luongo was there to scoop up the bouncing puck. Yet, undaunted the Wild would keep working the man advantage and as the penalty expired Kim Johnsson would give a quick d-to-d pass to Kurtis Foster who blistered a one-timer that deflected off the stick of Matt Cooke to beat Luongo high stick-side to tie the game, 3-3. Minnesota seemed to feel a momentum shift, and the Wild would strike about three minutes later when Marian Gaborik would skate into the Canucks’ zone and then make a quick move toward the middle of the ice and then quickly fire a shot that fooled Luongo to give Minnesota a 4-3 lead. The Wild would earn a power play when Markus Naslund tripped up Branko Radivojevic, but it would be the Canucks who seemed interested in scoring as they worked their offense as Minnesota would scramble about its own zone. The Canucks would create some good chances but luckily for Minnesota Niklas Backstrom would come up with the big saves. The Wild would generate a little pressure but would get no shots on the power play. The Canucks would try to press to get the equalizer, and Minnesota would play solid defense making sure they got back to help their goaltender by sweeping away loose pucks near the crease. Vancouver tried to create traffic and work shots from the point, but Backstrom was able to find the puck and hold on. On one of these chances, after the shot and the save there would be a frakas that would see all kinds of pushing and shoving, where Burrows and Veilleux would earn roughing minors. Off the very next faceoff, Henrik Sedin would beat Eric Belanger and he would push the puck to Alexander Edler to rifle a shot by Niklas Backstrom to tie the game, 4-4. It was another fairly soft goal as Backstrom was unscreened. Both teams would be more cautious in the closing minutes, and would not pinch too aggressively other than trying a few stretch passes and the game would go to overtime.
In the overtime, the Wild would have most of the quality scoring chances; the first of which came off a deflection attempt as Eric Belanger would fire a cross-ice pass that Marian Gaborik would deflect up and over the net. The Wild would have another good near chance when Mikko Koivu would give a great cross-ice pass to Brian Rolston but it was just out of his reach so he could not get a shot off. Minnesota would get the last good chance when Brian Rolston unloaded a blast that had Luongo ducking but the shot went high over the net and the game would go to a shootout.
In the shootout, the Canucks opted to go first and their first shooter was Alexander Edler. Edler, who already has two goals in this game, would skate in and try a rather uninspired pull-move to the forehand that Backstrom stopped with ease. Minnesota’s first shooter was Marian Gaborik, and the speedy Slovak would take a wide-right approach which would get Roberto Luongo to move but during his deke he’d lose the puck and the Canucks goaltender would make the stop. The Cancuks next shooter was Ryan Shannon, and the speedy Shannon would race up the ice wide to the left where he tried a quick wrister perhaps prompted a bit sooner by a Backstrom poke check and the shot would be knocked away. Minnesota’s next shooter was Brent Burns, and the Wild defenseman would race in on Luongo and feint at his pull-drag move that he used in St. Louis to then bring it across for the easy goal as Luongo moves out. Vancouver then had to get a goal from Trevor Linden to keep the Canucks’ hopes alive. Linden would move in and give a little kick making Backstrom drop before beating him with a wrister top shelf glove side to keep Vancouver in the game. This put the pressure on Mikko Koivu who would have a chance to win the game for Minnesota; and the Finn would race in with speed and give a quick deke before beating Luongo with a backhander to give the Wild a huge 5-4 shootout victory.
Niklas Backstrom was rather shaky in this game, giving up 4 goals on 28 shots. While that may not sound all that bad, the timing and quality of the goals scored on Backstrom, especially in the 3rd (where he gave up three goals) were rather soft. Luckily for Backstrom the team rallied back from those momentum crushing goals that were 16 seconds apart early in the 3rd that gave Vancouver the lead. He will have to play better if the Wild expect to go farther in the playoffs. I would be shocked if Backstrom is between the pipes during Minnesota’s game on Sunday against Nashville.
The Wild demonstrated some good resilience to triumph through some adversity, as they were able to create some offense after some questionable play of its goaltender. Minnesota did benefit from the flukey bounce on the Radivojevic / Veilleux goal, but it found ways to create offense against a fairly stingy Canucks squad. The two points from tonight’s game will keep the Wild atop the Northwest Division and while giving up 1 point to Vancouver hurts a bit, earning two softens the pain rather nicely. The Wild have to feel fairly good after finishing this 3-game road trip with 4 points; but they’ll still feel a bit haunted by giving failing to beat the Oilers. Minnesota will see the Cancuks again, at home on Tuesday so they better be prepared to play a team that will be very hungry for a victory.
Wild Notes:
~ Wild roster tonight is as follows: Marian Gaborik, Pavol Demitra, Brian Rolston, Pierre-Marc Bouchard, Eric Belanger, Mikko Koivu, Mark Parrish, Stephane Veilleux, Todd Fedoruk, James Sheppard, Branko Radivojevic, Aaron Voros, Nick Schultz, Kurtis Foster, Brent Burns, Martin Skoula, Kim Johnsson, Keith Carney and Josh Harding backed up Niklas Backstrom. Petteri Nummelin, Sean Hill, and Matt Foy were healthy scratches. Derek Boogaard is out of the lineup with a back injury.
~ The 3 Stars of the Game were: 1st Star Alexander Edler, 2nd Star Stephane Veilleux, 3rd Star Ryan Kesler
This entry was posted on Friday, February 15th, 2008 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: Koivu’s shootout winner lifts Minnesota to huge 5-4 road victory over the Canucks
